Miyazaki's Best: A List
June 12, 2005
As an overview of his work as director, here is a list of Miyazaki’s 10 essentials, keeping in mind that I left out his vast early TV work, and the comics (manga) he illustrates. Befitting a legend, it’s an impressive list of work.
10. Panda! Go Panda! (’72): The fist major collaboration between Miyazaki as writer and chief animator, and Takahata as director, the 60-minute ‘Panda’ is a strict kiddie flick, composed of two half hour stories about an adorable little human child and her talking panda friends- a giant Papa panda, and a cute baby. For animation and Miyazaki buffs, this little oddity is important only for its early collaboration with Takahata, and the early makings of the familiar Miyazaki character style, but for novice fans, the catchy pop song played during the beginning and end credits will drive you mad.
9. Porco Rosso (’92): An watercraft pilot in 1930’s Italy fights everything from air pirates to fascists while trying to keep his beloved plane in tact. The pilot, it should be noted, is a humanoid pig in a trench coat. No director outside of Howard Hughes has loved flight as much as Miyazaki, and this spirited adventure pretty much takes place in the air.
8. The Castle of Cagliostro (’79): Hayao’s first feature as director, starring the famed thief Lupin, in a comedic farce about money forgery, evil counts, beautiful princesses, and conspiracy atop conspiracy. Funny and frantic, with a few midair action pieces thrown in for good measure, ‘Cagliostro’ is a classic in Japan, but only known elsewhere by diehard anime fans.
7. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (’84): Recently released on DVD for the first time, Miyazaki’s environmentally precious epic about a princess who tries to save both her people and the forest after a hinted at nuclear war, is the blockbuster that gave the director the clout, and the funds, to form Studio Ghibli, and the rest is animation history. Heavy-handed tree hugging at times, but a rousing adventure, with more than a sprinkle of feminist girl power.
6. Castle in the Sky (’86): Indebted to the works of Jules Verne, and Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”, this airborne classic of the Victorian Era boasts more air pirates, magical pendants, governmental spies, and a cute boy-meets-girl story chock full of charm and heroism. Danger lurks around every corner in this film, but it’s more fun, and less socially important than ‘Nausicaa’, and it was the director’s first of an impressive three-films-in-three-years run during the initial Ghibli years.
5. Howl’s Moving Castle (’05): This year’s front runner for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and already a huge grosser in Japan, Miyazaki’s ninth feature features a titular structure similar to the floating island in ‘Castle’, but unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Harry Potter may get around on birds, flying cars, broomsticks and invisible trains, but he’s got nothing on the wizardly Howl and his massive moving makeshift mountain mansion.
4. Princess Mononoke (’97): Another important protect-the-environment piece of masterful storytelling and animation, this time concerning a man who takes to the forest to find a Deer God to cure him of a fatal curse put upon him by an evil Boar Demon, and ends up getting involved in a war between the forest-raised Mononoke, and the industrial mill town destroying the land’s natural resources. Epic in scope, and the director’s longest film at 135 minutes, at one point “Princess Mononoke” was the highest grossing film in Japan’s history, eventually replaced by “Titanic”, and then Miyazaki’s own “Spirited Away”. It deservedly won the Japanese equivalent of a Best Picture Oscar.
3. My Neighbor Totoro (’88): A proper Disney-produced DVD of this children’s classic, Miyazaki’s fourth picture, and his first masterpiece, is promised to be released sometime this year, probably around the time ‘Howl’ comes out, but those of us who have seen and loved this one-of-a-kind charmer find the wait particularly frustrating. Two sweet young girls move to the country with their father to be closer to their sick, hospitalized mother, and discover a forest filled with wonders and delights, including a bus shaped like a cat, and a giant bear-like Totoro (Miyazaki’s most famous design, and the symbol of Studio Ghibli) who flies the girls around the forest with breakneck leaps and bounds. Released the same year as Takahata’s “Grave of the Fireflies”, a banner year for animation and Studio Ghibli, ‘Totoro’ is as much childhood fantasy as it is innocence lost in the face of a parent’s impending death.
2. Kiki’s Delivery Service (’89): A year after completing ‘Totoro’, Miyazaki released his lightest film, “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, about a 13-year-old witch who takes to the real world by herself as part of her witch’s training, and finds a loveable sea-side town filled with kind people, from the baker who rents her a room and gives her a job, to the bespectacled boy who loves flying as much as she does. Cute beyond belief, ‘Kiki’ features a little black cat that serves both as Kiki’s best friend, and the film’s cynical yet tame edge. If you can watch this film and honestly tell me you weren’t charmed in the least, I’ll give you a dollar and point you to the nearest sentimentality donor bank, because, you sir, have no heart, and if you do, know not of what it is used for.
1. Spirited Away (’01): Miyazaki is often called the Japanese Walt Disney, a moniker he isn’t too fond of, and this truly brilliant fantasy is as magical and memorable as any Disney fable of the glorious 30’s and 40’s. En route to their new house in the suburbs, a modern rich family stops off at a seemingly abandoned amusement park, where the parents gorge themselves on free food, and summarily turn into hogs. To free them of the curse, their daughter Chihiro (another splendid Miyazaki heroine), takes a job at a bathhouse for Japanese Gods and spirits, in hopes of obtaining the means to breaking the spell. Filled with more imagination, colors, adventure, and fun than most American CGI films put together (excluding Pixar, of course), Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning masterwork presents one of his favorite themes- the coming of age of a youngster via adventure and danger- and adds layers of humanism, spirituality, humor, and a keen sense of wonderment to boot. If you want one movie that best represents the great Miyazaki and his gifted imagination and animation style, rent “Spirited Away”, and then the previous nine will come to you with much anticipation, because once you get hooked on this legendary animator’s work, you won’t want to stop until you’ve seen them all. Here’s to you, Miyazaki-san, one of my most cherished cinematic Gods.
by Adam Suraf