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Re #21: I only recently discovered Miyazaki's movies. The four I've seen so far were all good: Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky. "My Neighbor Totoro" has a totally off-putting CD box. Looks like it's going to be a really cheesily animated stupid kiddy film. But from the first frame of the actual movie you know you are in for something quite different. The animation is mostly gorgeous. (Some of Miyazaki's kids have oversized mouths of a style that always reminds me of "Speed Racer". Maybe it's a Japanese style thing, but it always puts me off.) Story is about two little girls and their dad who move into a rundown old house to be near the hospital where their mom is recovering from some illness. The kids eventually start trading favors with a forest spirit. The relationships among the characters are uniformally realistic and charming. The supernatural elements are inventive and just plain cool. There are no villians. In fact, everyone is stunningly nice. And yet the film has plenty of dramatic tension. I suspect this was the breakthrough film for Miyazaki - the Totoro character from it is used as the logo for his studio. Many elements from it reappear in "Spirited Away" - it's in some ways a first glimpse of the same spirit world. "Kiki's Delivery Service" is almost not a fantasy at all. There is only one fantasy element - the heroine is a witch who's only magical ability is to fly on a broomstick. She is 13 years old and off on her own for a year to try to learn the witch business. She settles in a town where the people are mostly rather bored by the idea of a witch in their midst. Since her only trick is flying her broomstick (which she isn't particularly good at), she starts a flying delivery service. It's a story about loneliness, and finding your own way in the world. Again, no villians, no scares. I thought the ending was flawed - a big action sequence which gives Kiki a bit too easy an out for resolving her doubts. Arlo loves this one. Castle in the Sky was the weakest of the ones I've seen. It's cool. The Disney version has the oddity of Mark Hammill (aka Luke Skywalker) voicing the villian's part. This one is full of gun fights and explosions and killer robots and all that old stuff. It has a fun pirate queen and a visually interesting world, but basically it's a pretty standard adventure flick, Ok, but not as good as the others.
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