Ghibli Reviews in MANY WORDS

I feel like it's the kinda film you'd either hate for its differences and not-super-exciting plot, or love for its madness and absurdity. I'd really like to know which side you go to!

BowPennykettle

What are your feelings on the new Ghibli movie, Earwig and the Witch? I've seen a lot of hate directed towards it, but personally I love it and how completely random and out of left field it is for Ghibli.

BowPennykettle

I showed my little sister Mononoke for the first time last night. She gasped really loud when *spoiler alert* the Forest Spirit’s head is cut off and I was reminded how shocking that moment is if you’ve never seen it before. At the end she said “I don’t quite understand why a lot of that happened or how, but I know it doesn’t matter because I really really liked it.” I love how these movies don’t always have perfect logical answers for you but you know that it does make sense, even if you can’t explain why on your first watch.

Mel Curtis

Bit of a shame, I hadn't seen some of these and thought they looked good... Not that I'm saying I'm automatically not going to see them because of this, just that I had higher hopes for them.

Stone Weevil

Chihiro spends the first thirty minutes of this film completely terrified of literally every single thing and the only reason she manages to not die is because Haku/Komaji/Lin help her. Not sure where you're seeing her bravery at the start. She literally doesn't even want to leave her car.

JelloApocalypse

At a guess, Spirited Away is missing a feeling that the character has grown and matured over the course of the movie. Chihiro starts the movie as a brave, strong girl who is willing to work hard to save her parents and ends as a brave, strong girl who is willing to work hard to save her parents. She herself has not changed throughout the movie. I would go so far as to say that she is the catalyst through which the other characters in the spirit world end up changing throughout the course of the film, while she herself remains static. Which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing; good for Chihiro, reaching self-actualization by like, age 12. But it's something we're so used to seeing in stories, that its absence is noticeable.

Samuel Albert Mell

I love your harsh stance on the dub/sub haters. Because you are right.

Alexandr Belov

I love this stuff. Would adore one for dreamworks if you feel up to it!

Missy Curtis

I have your exact feelings on Princess Kaguya and Ponyo. I do really enjoy Spirited Away, but when it ends, I always feel like its missing something but I can't really think of it or put it to words. I think I gotta re watch it. I still have to watch Porco Rosso and The Cat Returns. Really love listening to your incite on these films!

I was totally on board for everything you were saying until you said code lyoko is shit. I quite loudly said "YOU BASTARD!" code lyoko is fucking awesome! I'll give you totally spies. I like it, but I can see why so many don't. It's not a masterpiece by any means. And neither is code lyoko, but that doesn't make it shit. I have to wonder how much of it you've watched, because I will admit the first season is not great. It doesn't have much over arching story. Not a lot of character development. It's really just a disjointed collage of episodes that you could watch in any order and it would change literally nothing. HOWEVER... That DRASTICALLY changes in season 2. It becomes an actual show in season 2. And in my opinion, it only gets better and better from then on. I was already a fan by the time season 2 came along, but that's where I got completely hooked. Things do kind of take a dip in quality when William is introduced, but I think that's just because I don't like him as a character, I don't think the show as whole loses any overall quality. Seriously, if you haven't watched past the first season, especially if you have seen anything after they unlock sector 5, you really need to watch it.

Maxie Fuqua

Listened to this while working on an assignment :)

Jay

Will there be a DreamWorks one?

ErbBetaPatched

I remember attending the San Diego Comicon Panel where they revealed Ponyo and Miyazaki was there to talk about the film through a interpreter. The highlight of the show was during a Q and A a little girl walked up and asked him "Why he liked having women featured so prominently in his films?" without missing a beat before the interpreter could finish translating he just said in english "Because women are awesome." (if he could have done a mike drop I feel he would have)

Bersy

Listening to Jello wax poetic on Ghibli whilst plundering the treasures of solstheim. Perfect day off.

Jennifer Miller