@clueless101:

Thanks so much ^^

@nikkeh09:

Thanks! And I loved your art for the challenge!

@clueless101:

Congrats on winning!!!

My favorite ghibli film is Spirited Away. An unoriginal choice, to be sure, but everything from the stunning visuals to the musical score is top notch. I could watch it over and over without getting sick of it.

"My favorite film is Spirited Away"
"My favorite film is Howl's Moving Castle"

I'm about to combo breaker ya'll, because my favorite Ghibli movie is a toss-up between Only Yesterday (favorite Takahata work) and Porco Rosso (favorite Miyazaki Ghibli work, with Castle of Cagliostro being my favorite Miyazaki work), with the latter winning by the slimmest of margins.

I'll admit, there is intense favoritism with Porco Rosso, as it is most likely the closest Miyazaki came to recapturing the Lupin III European mystique. Spirited Away is still the better film, and Howl's Moving Castle is a great adaptation despite what many readers of the original Wynn-Jones novel say. That said, the style and time period evoked in Porco Rosso is eternal; a window into a past that is more reality than fantasy.

The story was originally based on a Miyazaki manga, but at its inception, the work was lighthearted. More roaring 20's, less romantic drama. In adapting his work, Miyazaki fine tuned the aspects to make the story run much like a seaplane. The result is the second coming of Casablanca and The General, two of the greatest films of all time. It is one thing to attempt a style, and another to match wits and tighten it.

I'll spare narrative details and discuss only the greater things. The dub is classic Miyazaki dub. Get a veritable platoon of huge talent to play leads and cut them loose.
Michael Keaton as the Porco Rosso may be one of anime's finest English performances, as all the finesse and suave of Bruce Wayne comes boiling to the surface. However, it came sixteen years after the fact, and the playboy bravado is replaced with lackadaisical confidence brewing over a quiet storm, well providing towards the character of the cursed pig.
Cary Elwes kicked off his Ghibli lead hat trick (twice as The Baron) as Donald Curtis, and how the Dread Pirate Roberts/British Robin Hood nailed an Americana-Texan gusto so perfectly is only telling of the actor's range. His dashing rough around the edges nature is a great foil to Keaton's boisterous placidity.
Susan Freaking Egan as the darling Gina is an excellent, and I mean excellent, addition. Well known in her small voice acting career to play the sultry love interest (Fun Fact: she was Megara in Disney's Hercules). I'll get to her singing later on, but this is a role that fits her to a kissable T.

The action and sense of geometry in the dogfights is stunning. Many times you'll hear critics go on about well executed fights in action titles. The Mama Auito Gang shootout and the initial fight between Curtis and Pagot is tight, but having enough dips and twists to show respect for the craft of aviation. Like ballerinas, the gliding and dancing in tandem is awesome. But everyone, and I mean everyone remembers the final duel between Pagot and Curtis, which descends into a madcap hijinks that borders on Popeye levels of slapstick. It's pure fun and just a perfect coda.

Finally, there are two scenes two the film that will engrave themselves in my mind. The first being at the beginning of the film, when Gina sings "Le temps des cerises", a historic French ballad that commemorates the death of a nurse during the brutal event known as Semaine Sanglante, in which French officials overthrew the famous Paris commune in an effort to quell Marxist ideals.
In mentioning Casablanca, I have to touch on the famous duels of songs, in which ideals are expressed by using both the German patriotic tune "Die Wacht am Rhein" and the French national anthem "La Marseillaise". I am wholly convinced that Gina's rendition of "Le temps des cerises" is as close cinema will ever get to replicating the duel, and Miyazaki did it with one voice and a piano in a bar. Italians, freelancers, and Americans all united by a common want of freedom.

The second is the airplane graveyard. It was once said that Miyazaki was thinking of directing a sequel, which would have been his one and only. If that idea didn't eventually turn into The Wind Rises, then I clearly don't know a director I've known for the better part of nine years. In fact, one can see his last film as the Japanese side of the same story Porco Rosso tells. We see Porco as the wartime hero who deserves the girl, but we know he led to the death of a tiny fraction of those pilots. Similarly, Jiro is our plucky lead whose intuition led to the creation of one of the most deadly weapons in WWII. Again, both have the interests of the common man in mind, as mentioned by the mechanic Fio's tale of Marco Rossolini saving an enemy pilot. Compounding that is the emotion Porco uses in telling of the dogfight that took Berllini's life and the march of the dead pilots. It's an excellent metaphor of Miyazaki's ambivalent yet pessimistic views of war and survival.

I could go on with the praise about every tidbit this gem has. The Piccolo family, the amount of meticulous research, the warm vocals of Tokiko Kato's rendition of "Les temps des cerises", my very namesake emulating the soundtracks of the era. It's an altogether brilliant film that supersedes Miyazaki's reputation, and show incredible homage to not only the Golden Age of cinema, but one of the Golden Ages of society.

Ooh, I'll have to get started on this challenge right away. I'll just push off my homework haha. I love Studio Ghibli movies and they're all masterpieces but my favorite is Spirited Away because it is one of the first ones I saw. I fell in love with the artwork and the story was just amazing. The small details put into the characters and the way they act and move around was amazing. I used to rent the movie from the library and watch it every summer. I've been busy so I didn't get to see it last year but I'll definitely be having my Studio Ghibli marathon this summer. Their movies never get old and every time I watch I feel like I'm seeing it for the first time.

I actually have a lot of favorite movies from Studio Ghibli. One that always stood out to me was Howl's Moving Castle. When I was little the cover art for the film alone captivated me then the story made it even better. With Sophie being an unconfident women being cursed to look like an old women can only find help from what seemed like a self absorbed wizard and his companions in a walking house that the door can take you to different places!!! Through out the movie it was wonderful to see how the two of them were able to help realize their faults and grow confidence for over coming their faults. Then in the end realizing that they love each other.

My favorite is Howl's Moving Castle. It was actually my first Ghibli film. I loved the characters and I could really relate with Sophie (besides all the magical elements). I even found the novel that it was based off of and it instantly became my favorite book as well. There isn't a film that could surpass Howl's Moving Castle, whether it be anime or live action. It's so rich in art, emotion and storyline. It's a masterpiece.

My favorite Studio Ghibli movie is Spirited Away. It is my favorite because it is a timeless story of growing up and through fantastical forces the main character Chihiro finds herself and realizes how much she loves her family.
I like this movie for the reason that it is overall a visual masterpiece by Hayao Miyazaki and when I first saw it, it stuck with me all these years. I'd really like to see it again soon.
I will be entering the fan art contest too. It sounds like fun. :)