Ponyo
Hayao Miyazaki is back in the director's chair this week as Ponyo, the latest offering from Studio Ghibli finally hits the big screen.
Using the voices of Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas the movie follows -year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa.
One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish.
The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world.
As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfil Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.
Over twenty years Studio Ghibli has been producing high quality animation movies that have enjoyed success all over the world but especially in Japan.
The driving force behind this success has been director Hayao Miyazaki who is famed for using strong female lead characters as well as depicting the horrors of war.FemaleFirst looks through the studio's impressive body of work to uncover Studio Ghibli's top five pictures.
1. Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle is one of Hayao Miyazaki's most recent projects, being released in 2004, and is based on the novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, as well as being my personal fave.
Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer), an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome-but-mysterious wizard named Howl (voiced by Christian Bale).
Her meeting with the wizard leads her to be turned into a 90-year old woman (voiced by Jean Simmons) by the vain and conniving Wicked Witch of the Waste (voiced by Lauren Bacall).
Embarking on an incredible odyssey to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl's magical moving castle where she becomes acquainted with Markl, Howl's apprentice, and a hot-headed fire demon named Calcifer (voiced by Billy Crystal).
Sophie's love and support comes to have a major impact on Howl, who flies in the face of orders from the palace to become a pawn of war and instead risks his life to help bring peace to the kingdom.
The film was premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2004 and went on be a critical and commercial success grossing $231 million at the international box office, making it one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history.
The film was nominated for the best Animated feature at the Academy Awards but lost out to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, absolutely robbed!
2. Grave of the Fireflies
The story is based on the semi-autobiographic novel by the same name, whose author, Nosaka, lost his sister due to malnutrition in 1945 wartime Japan.He blamed himself for her death and wrote the story so as to make amends to her and help him accept the tragedy.
In post-World War II Japan, a janitor finds a deathly ill boy lying beside a metal candy container. The janitor unwittingly tosses the possession into the night, beginning a most unusual tale of survival set amid the atrocities of war in the Animé Grave of the Fireflies.
Brother and sister Seita and Setsuko, ages 14 and 4, flee their disheveled home and deceased parents to make their bid for a new life.
Before American troops begin to occupy their country, the children resort to dwelling in an abandoned bomb shelter in the countryside.
Though these siblings later get a sense of safety, they realize necessities such as food and water will not be easy to come by.
Grave of the Fireflies is perhaps the most famous of Studio Ghibli's movies and was directed by Isao Takahata.
While Miyazaki is famed for his depiction of war no Ghibli movie has tackled this issue with the graphic and emotional depth that Grave of the Fireflies looked at the negative consequences of war on society.
It's powerful message and imagery has most this movie away from merely being a cartoon but it is now considered an anti-war picture as well as one of the best war pictures to have ever been made.
3. Spirited Away
Spirited Away is the tale of Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase), a young girl who is taken down an unusual road by her parents while moving to a new home in an unfamiliar town.
The curiosity of Chihiro's mother (Lauren Holly) and father (Michael Chiklis) leads the reluctant child into what appears to be an abandoned amusement park.
Soon her parents are greedily feasting on various delights from an enticing food stand and are literally turned into pigs.
The frightened and bewildered girl then encounters a young man named Haku (Jason Marsden), who explains what she must do to navigate this strange and magical realm.
Finding employment in a bathhouse for spirits and other odd characters, including kimono-wearing frogs, lumbering tentacled monsters, and a mysterious apparition named No Face, Chihiro attempts to figure out how she can free her parents from the clutches of the resort's owner, a powerful witch named Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette).
In the process, she makes some very eccentric friends--and has to deal with some notoriously stinky customers
Miyazaki's Spirited Away brought the world of Studio Ghibli anime movies to a Western audience winning Oscar for Best Animation, and is the only winner of that award to win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees).
The movie also won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2002.
It became the highest-grossing film in Japanese history and was the first movie to have earned $200 million at the worldwide box office before opening in the United States.
4. Princess Mononoke
While protecting his village from a rampaging boar-god, the warrior Ashitaka (Billy Crudup) is cursed with a rapidly spreading scar that threatens to end his life.
Seeking a cure and a reason for the animal-god's attack, he journeys into the sacred depths of the Great Forest Spirit's realm.
On the edge of this once serene forest, however, the Tatara clan have begun to destroy the surrounding land to produce iron.
In retaliation, San (Claire Danes), the adopted daughter of the wolf-god Moro (Gillian Anderson), has begun raiding the Tatara fortress to stop their encroachment.
Soon Ashitaka is caught in the middle and must stop the war between the humans and the forest dwellers before they destroy each other.
At the time of release 1997 it became the most expensive animation ever made in Japanese history but went on to be the highest grossing film in Japan until Titanic was released.
5. My Neighbour Totoro
Departing from the action-oriented plots of his previous films (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky), Japan's most beloved animator, Hayao Miyazaki, provides a slower-paced, stunningly realistic portrayal of life in the countryside.
When their mother is hospitalised because of an unspecified illness, two young sisters spend a summer in the Japanese countryside with their father.
The children's strange new environment turns out to be a natural wonderland filled with exotic real-life creatures and a trio of furry, woodland sprites who can only be seen by children.
Released in 1988 My Neighbour Totoro is one of Studio Ghibli's older pictures and instead of focusing on the horrors of war the film, instead, looks at the importance of family.
Unlike many of Miyazaki's movies this film is aimed at a child audience as the film focuses on a child's curious wonder, imagination and wide eyed wonder.
Other Studio Ghibli titles that are well worth checking out include Laputa Castle in the Sky, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Kiki's Delivery Service.
Ponyo is released 12th February
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Hayao Miyazaki is back in the director's chair this week as Ponyo, the latest offering from Studio Ghibli finally hits the big screen.
Using the voices of Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas the movie follows -year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa.
One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish.
The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world.
As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfil Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.
Over twenty years Studio Ghibli has been producing high quality animation movies that have enjoyed success all over the world but especially in Japan.
The driving force behind this success has been director Hayao Miyazaki who is famed for using strong female lead characters as well as depicting the horrors of war.FemaleFirst looks through the studio's impressive body of work to uncover Studio Ghibli's top five pictures.
1. Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle is one of Hayao Miyazaki's most recent projects, being released in 2004, and is based on the novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, as well as being my personal fave.
Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer), an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome-but-mysterious wizard named Howl (voiced by Christian Bale).
Her meeting with the wizard leads her to be turned into a 90-year old woman (voiced by Jean Simmons) by the vain and conniving Wicked Witch of the Waste (voiced by Lauren Bacall).
Embarking on an incredible odyssey to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl's magical moving castle where she becomes acquainted with Markl, Howl's apprentice, and a hot-headed fire demon named Calcifer (voiced by Billy Crystal).
Sophie's love and support comes to have a major impact on Howl, who flies in the face of orders from the palace to become a pawn of war and instead risks his life to help bring peace to the kingdom.
The film was premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2004 and went on be a critical and commercial success grossing $231 million at the international box office, making it one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history.
The film was nominated for the best Animated feature at the Academy Awards but lost out to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, absolutely robbed!
2. Grave of the Fireflies
The story is based on the semi-autobiographic novel by the same name, whose author, Nosaka, lost his sister due to malnutrition in 1945 wartime Japan.He blamed himself for her death and wrote the story so as to make amends to her and help him accept the tragedy.
In post-World War II Japan, a janitor finds a deathly ill boy lying beside a metal candy container. The janitor unwittingly tosses the possession into the night, beginning a most unusual tale of survival set amid the atrocities of war in the Animé Grave of the Fireflies.
Brother and sister Seita and Setsuko, ages 14 and 4, flee their disheveled home and deceased parents to make their bid for a new life.
Before American troops begin to occupy their country, the children resort to dwelling in an abandoned bomb shelter in the countryside.
Though these siblings later get a sense of safety, they realize necessities such as food and water will not be easy to come by.
Grave of the Fireflies is perhaps the most famous of Studio Ghibli's movies and was directed by Isao Takahata.
While Miyazaki is famed for his depiction of war no Ghibli movie has tackled this issue with the graphic and emotional depth that Grave of the Fireflies looked at the negative consequences of war on society.
It's powerful message and imagery has most this movie away from merely being a cartoon but it is now considered an anti-war picture as well as one of the best war pictures to have ever been made.
3. Spirited Away
Spirited Away is the tale of Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase), a young girl who is taken down an unusual road by her parents while moving to a new home in an unfamiliar town.
Tagged in Hayao Miyazaki Studio Ghibli