Your favorite Studio Ghibli movie

[Shinsei-J]

Alright, time to top five all up in this business!
[sub]And what secures it's spot in two sentences or less.[/sub]

1. Kiki's Delivery Service
This just makes me feel fuzzy with its happy go lucky charm like no other film ever has.
A story of adolescent courage and love, just beautiful.

2. Porco Rosso
The lead character. Done.

3. Castle in the Sky
It's the adventure of a lifetime, the one you dream of as a child.

4. Spirited Away
I have no idea what makes this so great but damn if it ain't.

5. The Cat Returns
This one gets a bit of flak as to not being up to par with the others but I really love the characters.
They just make the movie for me.

Those are my top five though to be fair they'll most likely change the more I think about them.
As it does make me sad that I couldn't place Arrietty anywhere on this list.

 

[TehCookie]

I keep seeing this thread now and then, it's been done to death. They're all lovely movies, easily separated between grand sweeping epics (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke); smaller, personal stories of escapism (Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle) and cutesy slice-of-life (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Miyazaki's latest movie, from the looks of it).

I honestly can peg down my favorite. The first one I saw was Spirited Away, which made me want to watch more Miyazaki movies, so you might as well go for that one. It's the easy entryway, I guess. Totoro is a great movie and I think it was the most humane, touching movie of the lot.

Let me ruin Totori for you then. http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro

Ugh not THIS again. Enough with the gritty readings between lines, must we tarnish everything with dark and edgy cynicism?

Or just take it as a crazy conspiracy theory and have fun with it like a ghost story.

Not saying there isn't some creepy stuff going on in the movie but come on, not Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory.

Why did you have to link me there? I have no self control I'll be there all night, do you hate me that much for posting that?

But that's also why I said have fun with it and don't take it seriously. It's as real as the Mayan calendar ending, and we all know how that turned out. It was still fun to pretend the world was going to end.

 

[xyrafhoan]

My #1 pick would be Castle in the Sky, though it is also remarkably long for an animated movie. #2 would probably be Grave of the Fireflies, but that is a movie that you watch with a box of tissues nearby and a lot of hydration. It's very difficult to watch because of the material, but I think the emotional response you get watching the movie is part of the experience. It's meant to be watched as a double feature with My Neighbour Totoro so I would definitely queue up a happy movie after.

A surprise hit for me was From Up On Poppy Hill. I ended up watching the dub because I wasn't paying attention to the screenings and thought there would be no subtitle screening, but alas. The dub was passable. Notably, Disney has given up on distributing Ghibli movies in North America and has handed off the rights to another production company. It has a lot of charm despite some choppiness, and seems a bit like a redemption piece for Goro Miyazaki after the plodding (but still gorgeous) outing of Tales of Earthsea. It might not be my favourite but it has merit and is one of their better movies in recent years as the studio tests out new directors.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I keep seeing this thread now and then, it's been done to death. They're all lovely movies, easily separated between grand sweeping epics (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke); smaller, personal stories of escapism (Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle) and cutesy slice-of-life (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Miyazaki's latest movie, from the looks of it).

I honestly can peg down my favorite. The first one I saw was Spirited Away, which made me want to watch more Miyazaki movies, so you might as well go for that one. It's the easy entryway, I guess. Totoro is a great movie and I think it was the most humane, touching movie of the lot.

Let me ruin Totori for you then. http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro

Ugh not THIS again. Enough with the gritty readings between lines, must we tarnish everything with dark and edgy cynicism?

Or just take it as a crazy conspiracy theory and have fun with it like a ghost story.

Not saying there isn't some creepy stuff going on in the movie but come on, not Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory.

Why did you have to link me there? I have no self control I'll be there all night, do you hate me that much for posting that?

But that's also why I said have fun with it and don't take it seriously. It's as real as the Mayan calendar ending, and we all know how that turned out. It was still fun to pretend the world was going to end.

Sorry! I've been linking to TvTropes quite frequently these past few days. I keep expecting to find someone who hasn't been there before, but so far everybody's cursing about having already been trapped in there

 

[piinyouri]

Probably "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" since one of my favorite games was inspired in part from it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Though I've not seen it yet, I've heard great things about The Borrower Arriaty considering it's not a Miyazaki film.

It is written by Miyazaki, and shows that maybe he isn't the best scriptwriter. There was some great potential in this movie that unfortunately never really shines through. It was nice to hear a different kind of score though, for a Ghibli movie.

OT: My Neighbor Totoro achieves something no other movie ever has. It displays that sincere joy of child's play, lacking any sarcasm or cinicism. The scenes with Satsuki and Mei first arriving at the house and adventuring through it are brilliant, and Mei herself is without a doubt the most authentic child character ever put on film. The scene where she's playing alone in the garden while her father is doing the accounting or whatever, perfectly shows how a little kid's attention just shifts from one thing to the next within minutes. And the scene where through the shear power of tantrum she forced Nanny to take her to Satsuki's school so she could be with her big sister was absolute gold.

The movie even knows how to interject the slightest bit of anxiety without it going into full blown tension. The bus stop scene in particular.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Grave of the Fireflies, hands down.
All of those feels at the end, man... :'(

But really, it's hard to pin down my favourite, because they are all great for the most part. I only named GotF as my favourite because it's the only Ghibli film, and one of very few films in general, that had me genuinely crying my eyes out at the end.

 

[Flatfrog]

Slightly at a tangent - I mentioned on another thread recently that they should make a version of Neverending Story. I was re-reading it with my son the other day and it just felt like I was narrating a Ghibli movie.

OT - I've only seen Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Arietty; of the three Spirited Away was definitely my favourite.

So why was Earthsea so crap? I love the books.

 

[Kyber]

I'm a sucker for the surreal and world building, so Spirited Away.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

I gotta say, watching spirited away I WAS spirited away, it was amazing. I also remember being pretty damn depressed when it was over simply by the fact that it was over.


They are all good though so far, even earthsea the one everyone pans(I admit, might be their weakest, but it's still worth a watch, strangely it felt kinda empty... not like in a bad way or the characterisation or plot or anything, just in a like... empty... way? Maybe it was the environments not seeming to have a lot of features, maybe it was cause they were out in a field farm, and then a big fairly uninhabited castle and stuff, but overall 'empty' just seems the right word to me)

 

[Squilookle]

It's an unpopular choice, especially with the younger set, but it's Porco Rosso for me. Just beautiful in every respect, with dazzling flashes of colour in landscapes, aeroplanes, and characters. The first animated movie I saw that really revealed to me how multi-layered an animation could be. It's not for everyone, but I usually find those that like it... love it.

And by the way folks, it's Laputa: Castle in the Sky, not just 'Castle in the Sky,' no matter what Disney chooses to change it to.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

1) Porco Rosso
2) Laputa: Castle In The Sky

After those two, it starts getting hard to put numbers on them. I enjoyed Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoké (also Nausicaa, but technically, it was created before Ghibli was founded). Grave of the Fireflies was an interesting watch, but it was pretty heavy and I don't think I will be seeing it again.

The slice of life elements in Kiki's Delivery Service and Whisper of the Heart were pretty enjoyable, though I am not the biggest fan of My Neighbor Totoro. Yeah, the creatures are fun, but the end result felt like a mixture of two tones that seemed to simply ignore each others existence most of the time. Also, I wasn't really impressed by The Cat Returns and never got why it had to be a tie-in with Whisper of the Heart, since the tone is completely different. Pom Poko on the other hand, I enjoyed not because it was good, but because it was so freakin' bizarre (the whole testicle thing). I mean, yeah, I get the lore behind it, but it's still weird to see it in an animated film for kids.

I thought Spirited Away had great animation, but the story was pretty awful. I feel pretty much the same about Ponyo. However, were those two still had some form of pacing and "kind of" enjoyable characters, Arrietty had a bad story without any of those elements.

I haven't seen Tales of Earthsea, Only Yesterday, From Up on Poppy Hill, Ocean Waves or My Neighbors The Yamadas.

 

[Nazulu]

From what I've seen so far, which isn't many.

3. Spirited Away - It took a little time for me to get into it. When the spirits showed up I was curious to see what happens next. Found it kind of annoying how the main character had her hand held most of the way but it really had it's wacky and intense moments. Really enjoyed the bathtub scene.

2. Howl's Moving Castle - Like Spirited Away, suddenly shit goes down a short while into the show. Almost the whole cast are fun characters, and the way they reveal the magic is interesting, you can never tell whats going to happen next. Corny ending is corny, also a bit random.

1. Princess Mononoke - Both the action the dialogue are really really good in this one, though the main character is a little to of a plain hero type for my taste.

 

[DRTJR]

Castle in the Sky, God I love this movie, I saw it when I was sick and home and it blew the 10 year old me's little mind, and I still get that sense of awe and wonder with each viewing. this isn't just my favorite animated film but one of my all time favorite movies.

Whisper of the heart. I love this movie and it's hard to pin down why, maybe it's the fact this easily could have been live action, and it's not.

The rest are amazing movies, even the "duds" of Ghibli are still beutiful to look at.

 

[Mausthemighty]

My top three is:
- Castle in the Sky
- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Although the manga was way better)
- Princess Mononoke

 

[Angie7F]

1) Spirited Away
2) Laputa
3) Porco Rosso
4) Grave of the Fire Fly
5) Princess Mononoke


Some of the more recent ones are not that appealing to me.
Especially Ponyo.

 

[Buffoon1980]

1: My Neighbour Totoro. It captures childhood better than any other movie ever, IMO. That's something special.
2: Pom Poko. A controversial choice? I didn't see anyone else mention it. For one thing, Tanuki are just cool. For another thing, I found the sense of loss as the world moves on to be truly profound.
3: Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Just great fun.
4: Princess Mononoke. Just plain cool.
5: Grave of the Fireflies. Beautiful, but too sad for me to actually want to watch it again.

Personally (and this is just an opinion, please don't kill me) I was disappointed with both Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. They were gorgeous, sure, but just didn't speak to me in the same way as the films mentioned above.