Thursday, September 6, 2012

Thor's Day Hero: Hayao Miyazaki


I admit to being a bit late to the Hayao Miyazaki party, having only discovered his movies in the last ten years or so, but better late than never! Forget about just the animation, his movies hit on all the levels; the story, the imagination, okay sure the art, the scope, and more. It's almost impossible to ask a fan of his work what their favorite movie is, and my favorite seems to change month to month. So for excellent sci-fi, fantasy, and everything in between, you'd be pretty well off starting with Miyazaki first. In the same vein as Wes Anderson, there's really not a movie Miyazaki's done that I don't like. So here's to another filmmaker joining the ranks of Thor's Day Heroes.
  • The Castle of Cagliostro
  • Nausicaä, Valley of the Wind
  • Castle in the Sky
  • My Neighbor Totoro
  • Kiki's Delivery Service
  • Porco Rosso
  • Princess Mononole
  • Spirited Away
  • Howl's Moving Castle
  • Ponyo

8 comments:

  1. Good pick. Miyazaki is a genius.

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    1. Hey KG! Thanks, I agree wholeheartedly!

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  2. This guy is pretty much the Walt Disney of Japan, i have a very deep respect for his work, and love most of it. I'm bargain hunting for a collection of studio Ghibli works for my daughter when she's older.

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    1. Fortunately I had some of his movies before our first child was born and she grew into them. There was a very nice collected box years ago that had all of his movies (at the time) in it, with the original voice tracks. Now I'm working on switching everything over to Blu-Ray, starting with Nausicaä.

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  3. Its rare that one film maker has a 100% hit rate with me, but this is one. Totally agree.

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    1. Same here, even Porco Rosso, which I feel may be the weakest one of the bunch, has so many nuggets of brilliance here and there it's hard to discount it out right.

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  4. We got Ponyo out of the library recently and it seemed interesting but the copy was messed up which made it tough to completely follow.

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    1. That one's getting a lot of play here at Rancho Mik lately. For you I'd reccomend Nausicaä and Mononoke, for the kids Totoro and Kiki, and the rest fall in a magical middle ground that will be enjoyed equally by everyone in the house regardless of age.

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