herbiehancock

No 488 - Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke ) Director - Hayao Miyazaki So, I started the day with a tricky little decision, and I think I cho se the controversial choice when i sat down to watch this film with the English dub. But.... I have my reasons and let me explain them. 1) The subtitle translation on my DVD is a bit weird and obscure at times. 2) The English dub was written by Neil Gaiman , and whilst this may only be a rewriting, rather than an original story, the man is still a fucking legend and one of the great fiction writers of our time. The fact that this is a film about man trying to advance forward and negate the work of the ancient Gods is also a very Gaiman idea . The film is set a very very very long time ago and is about the early settlements of Japan - how they had to clear the forests to make way for their lives and how this affects the spirits and Gods who reside in the forests. I love the spirituality of the Studio Ghibli films and how, although they're...

No 275 - Tonari No Totoro (My Neighbour Totoro ) Director - Hayao Miyazaki How can you fail to like a film that has such infectiously happy title music . (I love the awful awful literal film description in the translated lyrics....). In that clip you will also see the wide grinning face of another genius aspect of the film, but I will touch on THAT later. This is a film about a family who move next door to a forest spirit. The two little girls in the family then go and have a series of adventures. It sounds like a really childish plot, and it is, but Studio Ghibli can take a simple premise and make it into such a rich experience. This is quite possibly my favourite cartoon ever. Watching it makes me feel so full of joy and full of excitement, it instills childish emotions into adults - which makes it a powerful cartoon. The film also benefits from the amazing characters. I find Ghibli fascinating because it embraces the ancient mysticism and spirituality of Japan. They create r...

No 339 - Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi ) Director - Hayao Miyazaki I love Studio Ghibli . I love Miyazaki . He, and his studio, have rekindled a love and excitement about cartoons. It is almost the same thrill I got as a child watching Disney. Like most Westerners of my generation (though by no means all), I came to discover Ghibli through the release of Spirited Away. It is by no means my favourite, but they're in the list so I can talk about them later. It is, however, my first Ghibli film and so it should be the first one I watch. I've watched this film several times before in both English and Japanese. For while I have really strong views on dubbing, they don't cross over to animation and I frequently watch the dubbed cartoon (after all lip synch is less of an obvious issue). I have decided to watch the dubbed version this time for 2 reasons: When I first saw it at the cinema it was the American dub, therefore this is the version that I believe would...