Mostly confusing things just happen. (Though the cat bus thing is fricken awesome.)
Not much seems to happen in the film, but the atmosphere and charm is the film's strong points.
Studio Ghibli thread
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Yeah, know your point was about the narrative (or lack thereof), and it's well-taken. To me, part of the charm is that this is one of those movies that's trying to make everything that happens, no matter how inane, magical in some way. I'm sure we'll get into it more later.
Also, for anyone new to the movie, it features, in my opinion, one of Miyazaki's best background protagonists, the father. It also features one of his lamer villains, bacteria.
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Wait…this movie had a villain? :blink:
But yeah the father was well written and performed. -
Totoro is what Harvey would be if Elwood was high on acid and imagined himself a little girl.
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REALLLLY gotta start watching some of these films. So far I've only seen Laputa and the second half of Porco Rosso.
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I just saw this for the first time, and i absolutely loved this movie. Perhaps the plot was a little dull, and maybe I was a bit too old for the target demographic. But I gotta say, that animation and art was just beautiful, though i guess that is to be expected. Im not sure which dub i watched, but the voices for the girls were so cute
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The stream this week will depend on my ISP getting back to normal. It's been slow for the past 2 days, so hopefully it's fixed within the next 24 hours or so.
I'll make a post saying if I can or can't do it tomorrow.
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Didn't watched Totoro, but today 4 films of studio ghibly were shown in the german tv:)
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@ Tatermog: Thats fine if you have a different opinion. Thanks for respecting mine. I just want to be more vocal, cause I'm in the minority. :)
Panda, you sum up my thoughts very well. I have troubles wording things sometimes. I like how you put this.
@Panda:Take the children running away, what I feel to probably be the focal point of the movie. Without knowing their fate, I feel it's possible a viewer might actually cheer this on. After all, when it comes down to it, for all that they were being cared and provided for, they were miserable living with their aunt, and here they were taking matters into their own hands to do something about it. In that sense, they were doing the right thing: they were simply trying to find some happiness in their lives, to make them worth living, rather than meekly accept an existence where their continued life came at the cost of any joy in it. In that sense, I cannot find it in myself to judge their decision as 'wrong'; which just causes the knife to be twisted in the wound all the harder with the way the movie is set up. I say what they do isn't wrong – shouldn't be wrong -- and yet it gets both of them killed, and I am forced to recognize this fact even as the events unfold.
Anyways, on to Totoro. My opinion: It's simply adorable and fun. who cant like this. again, I'm stuck at work, so I think I'll fall asleep watching this tonight. I've seen it enough times. Wish I could join the stream. I'm sure you'll all have fun.
ooh, hey, I have the 13th off. What's the movie 2 weeks from now? (anything but pom pocco please)
walks off singing the theme song to herself
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yawnso I actually watched it this morning. My first time watching the disney dub. It was really well done.
I noticed this time, the little boy's bottom was always discolored. Are his shorts made that way, or are they dirty from mud or something? Always so many interesting little Japanese quirks I wonder about when watching things like this.
oh, also, did I mention I seen From up on Poppy Hill on tuesday? It was really good. You guys should check it out.
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@Galaxy:
The stream this week will depend on my ISP getting back to normal. It's been slow for the past 2 days, so hopefully it's fixed within the next 24 hours or so.
I'll make a post saying if I can or can't do it tomorrow.
Yeah.. so my internet is still being complete crap.
As soon as it returns to normal, I'll set up a time for this movie to be streamed (hopefully sometime this week).
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So, Totoro. What a difference a few years can make. Last time I watched it, somewhere between 8 and 13 years ago I was just kind of bored. I kept waiting for stuff to happen. This time around? Really enjoyed it. It was charming and cute and watching those children explore and play was fun in all the ways that it wasn't in Fireflies.
Like I said in the Laputa review, one of the really refreshing things is that the adults in the movie just completely accept whatever the kids have to say, no matter how fanciful or weird. Some even go to the point of noting "Yes, I saw such things when I was your age." Part of me wants to be cynical and say "they're just humoring the kids and playing along" but another part (and this comes from them immediatley going along with "there's pirates!" in Laputa) has to assume that they actually DO believe that the kids are seeing something wonderful that they aren't, and that's really nice.
All the moments with the father are really great.
There's not much to say about the movie because not a lot happened, but there was a lot of pure joy in just watching little children run about a broken down house and nearbye field, finding fun and games in the mundane (Something Wolf Children imitates years later). Obviously all the scenes with Totoro are great. Even in my "this is boring" viewing years ago, I enjoyed those bits. The part in the rain is of course iconic, and the catbus with its grin is just infectiously happy. I had totally forgotten about the part where they make trees grow in the night (only for them to not be there in the morning) and the energy in that bit is just infectious and wonderful.
(My favorite is the midsized blue totoro)
The movie has no real plot its trying to achieve, so it has no real end either, so its hard to judge in that respect. Even its tense climax is… not terribly tense. But thats okay, sometimes just having a lot of wonderful scenery and a few interesting moments is enough for a slice of life. There's no greater message or action, and so its never going to be one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it much, much more than I previously did, I've very glad to have rewatched it now.
Makes me especially interested to see how Kiki and Spirited Away are going to be for me now, since I had much the same impression of those at around the same time of "this is boring, nothing is happening".
ooh, hey, I have the 13th off. What's the movie 2 weeks from now? (anything but pom pocco please)
The tentative schedule goes for a couple of months…. though it may change if it just turns out any of these movies are impossible to find or a theme suggests itself... but mostly chronological order seems a reasonable way to do it.
APRIL
Kiki's Delivery Service
Only Yesterday
Porco Rosso
Ocean Waves (tv movie)
MAY
Pom Poko
Whisper of the Heart
Princess Mononoke
My Neighbors the Yamadas
JUNE
Spirited Away
The Cat Returns
Howl's Moving Castle
Tales from Earthsea
Ponyo
JULY
Arriety
From Up on Poppy HillThen if copies can be found,
Hols: Prince of the Sun
The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots
Animal Treasure Island
Panda Go Panda
Castle of CagliostroI haven't seen most of the newest films, or the oldest, so that'll be interesting.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
Oh, and the main Totoro theme is pretty catchy too.
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Internet is finally back to normal.
I'm thinking either I'll stream Totoro Wednesday at the usual time, or just do both movies this upcoming Saturday, but start the stream 2 hours earlier.
You guys can decide what's best.
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eitther way I'm missing out, so doesn't matter to me.
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eitther way I'm missing out, so doesn't matter to me.
I'm open to other suggestions as well because not many people make it to the 3 pm one anyways.
(Just nothing outrageous like late night, early morning).
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Well for me it's kinda hard cause my work schedule changes all the time. Some other people should chime in. For me personally, I'm off Thursday this week, and Saturday after 5 would work for me.
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I just wanted to pop in and say, my two-year-old (going on 3) daughter absolutely adores Totoro. She'll pretend to collect acorns, see a Totoro, or look for susuwatari… it's adorable.
Adults sometimes get rubbed the wrong way by the (relative) lack of action and conflict, but it's such a charming film with completely natural interaction between the characters (especially Satsuki and Mei).
Anybody who doubts the power of this movie needs only to put it on for a young child and watch as they get completely engrossed.
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Well. You were the only suggestion Usopp.. so Thursday 3 P.M. EST is when I'll stream Totoro.
Next movie will still be Saturday at 3pm.
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For some reason, none of my software is working, so can't do my usual "favorite scenes" and the such.
Will just leave it at this. I love My Neighbor Totoro without qualification, embarrassment, or reason. I don't mind that it has little to no narrative or conflict. I don't mind that it's another fairly weak ending in the Ghibli canon. It's a simple movie where people are good, children and parents try to understand each other, and everything is a little magical. Wish there were more movies like it.
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yay. i'm sick today so this will be a nice easy activity for me. see you in 3 hours then.
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Totoro starting in about 20 minutes: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/galaxy9000
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stupid broken chat. thats the whole point of the stream. grump
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Posted this in the appropriate thread, but Ebert did a better job at expressing my perspective on My Neighbor Totoro than I do: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011223/REVIEWS08/112230301/1023
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Posted this in the appropriate thread, but Ebert did a better job at expressing my perspective on My Neighbor Totoro than I do: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011223/REVIEWS08/112230301/1023
in other semi related news, apparently ebert has passed on. Thank you ebert for being a professional adult who could appreciate anime for what it was.
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Yeah, that article explains it well. I guess the success behind My Neighbor Totoro is that it's a real(istic) story. It's just a piece of real life, treated in a proper way. The kids behave exactly like we used to, exploring with their curiosity, dreaming with the eyes opened and experiencing life freely. The family is absolutely a normal average family with their problems, their moments of joy, of sorrow, of scare, of gathering together and much more…the father that doesn't say to the girls "Totoro doesn't exist" but plays along... the mother that is sick but no one makes a big deal out of it, it's just part of our life...Satsuki that is really worried when Mei disappears and does her best to find her...the typical "liking" of little girls and boys that takes place between Satsuki and the shy Kanta...
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So, I must confess my shame that I had never seen Totoro before now. Of course I'd heard of it, and knew of the various iconic scenes, as well as the general heart-warming, simple, feel-good nature of the film. I'd simply never actually sat down to watch it, something which has now been rectified.
I suppose there's little point in my echoing everyone else's sentiments on the movie, but I'll nonetheless say that I adored it. Its 'slice-of-life' nature actually worked in its favor in many ways, I feel, such as allowing me freedom to notice the various little details that went into it. To give some examples from towards the end of the movie, which is most fresh in my mind, there is the way that the Cat Bus held out most of its legs for balance as it ran along the telephone wires, or how, when they found Mei, she begins to run around to the side of the bus that her sister was on, before realizing that the door is on the other side, and turning around. I thought the movie was absolutely full of things like this, none of them really necessary, but all of them adding up to, I feel, create a large part of the movie's charm.
Something I will bring up, that I don't believe has been before, occurred to me as I was thinking over the original pairing of this movie with Grave of the Fireflies. I stand by my opinion (which I'm sure is extremely common, if not unanimous) that I could not possibly imagine watching the two movies together like that. Yet, that said, I actually feel that they really are sister films, in a way. Neither film really had much 'point', in the sense of story or plot. Rather, both, to me, served more as vessels to convey raw emotion; what plot they each have mere tools, creating films that serve as lenses to color one's view of life and the world.
Where they radically differ, of course, to the point of being polar opposites, is in what sort of 'lens' they are. Where Grave paints a relentlessly 'realistic' picture of life as a harsh, unfair thing – something that cannot even really be described as 'cruel', since it is simply too uncaring -- Totoro unabashedly shows the viewer a world of idealistic wonder and joy. While what 'happy' moments that occurred in Grave served only to further drive home the sorrow, Totoro's scenes of tension, if they can even be called that, seem to exist solely to show that things will work out alright in the end.
Given this way of looking at it, I hardly think it's surprising that Totoro is so much more beloved. Given the choice between the extremes, I can't imagine there exist many people at all that would not prefer to imagine the world as it exists in Totoro, rather than as it is shown in Grave. Still, I found it an interesting thought that two movies, which at first glance seem as though they couldn't possibly be more different, are regardless at the same time very much the same.
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Kiki's Delivery Service
Streaming at 3:00 Saturday: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Galaxy9000 (thanks Galaxy 9000)
Running site:http://anilinkz.com/kikis-delivery-service
http://www.animeflavor.com/node/29447
Torrent: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5664076/Studio_Ghibli_Collection_[jap-eng_audio]eng-sub[Mkv]
Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Kikis-Delivery-Service-Kirsten-Dunst/dp/B002ZTQVLG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365120870&sr=8-1&keywords=kiki%27s+delivery+serviceReleased in 1989, (only one year after Totoro) written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Eiko Kadono, an author of children's literature, and tells the story of a young witch (Takayama) as she spends a year in a town on her own while using her magical abilities to earn her living. It was the highest grossing film in Japan of 1989
According to Miyazaki, the movie touches on the gulf that exists between independence and reliance in Japanese teenage girls. Going far beyond coming of age themes, the work deals with the nature of creativity and talent, and the central difficulty every person faces in becoming themselves, whether through luck, hard work or confidence: thesame issues that come up in Whisper of the Heart, which Miyazaki also had a large hand in (And we'll be getting to in May.)
This film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize. It was the first Studio Ghibli film released under the partnership between The Walt Disney Company and Studio Ghibli; Disney recorded an English dub in 1997… and has had THREE different dubs. (As many animes that have been translated since the 80's tend to do.) The most recent DVD release in 2010 dubs closer to the original with more quiet moments.
Some of the changes involve Jiji the cat's personality being fairly different, and more ambient sounds.
! Disney's changes have been described as "pragmatic".The changes were approved by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
! An example occurs near the film's beginning as Kiki flies away from home. In the Japanese version, Kiki bumps into a tree but then continues onward in silence. In the English dub, she shouts a final "Goodbye, everyone!".
! There are a number of additions and embellishments to the film's musical score, and there are several lavish sound effects over sections which are silent in the Japanese original. For example, compare the "wild geese" adventure in both versions. The extra pieces of music, composed by Paul Chihara, ranged from soft piano music to a string-plucked rendition of Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King.
! The original opening and ending theme songs were replaced by two new songs, "Soaring" and "I'm Gonna Fly", written and performed for the English movie by Sydney Forest.
! The depiction of the cat, Jiji, changed significantly. In the Japanese version, Jiji is voiced by Rei Sakuma, while in the English version Jiji is performed by Saturday Night Live alumnus Phil Hartman, and also has more of a wisecracking demeanor. In Japanese culture, cats are usually depicted with feminine voices, whereas in American culture their voices are more gender-specific. A number of Hartman's lines exist where Jiji simply says nothing in the original (such as in the scene where Jiji approaches Lili along the top of the wall). Jiji's personality is notably different between the two versions, showing a more cynical and sarcastic attitude in the 1998 English version as opposed to cautious and conscience-like in the original Japanese.
! In the original Japanese script, Jiji loses his ability to communicate with Kiki permanently, but in the American version a line is added which implies she is once again able to understand him.] Miyazaki has said that Jiji is the immature side of Kiki, and this implies that Kiki, by the end of the original Japanese version, has matured beyond talking to her cat.
! More minor changes to appeal to the different teenage habits of the day include Kiki drinking hot chocolate instead of coffee and referring to "cute boys" instead of to "the disco"
! The English subtitled script used for the original VHS subbed release and the later DVD release, more closely adheres to the Japanese script, but still contains a few alterations. It is based on the original Streamline dub, and has resulted in several additions from that dub to migrate into the script regardless of whether they are present or not (such as Herbert Morrison's "Oh the humanity!" line during the blimp sequence). This came about because Tokuma gave Disney the script for the original dub, thinking it was an accurate translation, leaving this as the script that Disney worked on
! The THIRD English version, released in 2010, is something of a combination of the original Japanese version (which is fairly minimalist and has basic sound effects) and the 1998 Disney English audio production. Some of the 1998 changes and additions remain and some are gone, reverting to the original audio production. The opening and closing songs from the English version have been changed to the original Japanese pop songs.
! Notably, Hartman's final line which implied that Jiji could talk again by the end of the story has been removed.Following in the tradition of Laputa, In Spanish speaking countries, Kiki was renamed "Nicky", because in Castilian Spanish, the phonetically similar quiqui is commonly used in a slang expression: echar un quiqui which means "to have intercourse".
My Personal History with this movie
[hide]Not much to this one that wasn't pretty much the same as Totoro. and from about the same time, the tale end of my VHS days. I saw it after I'd already seen a couple other films, was expecting and hoping for one thing, got a quiet slice of life thing, and didn't care for it much. I also saw it with a friend who was bored by it, which may have had an affect on my take on it.Given how much more I liked Totoro this time around, I'm curious to see how this viewing goes. [/hide]
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Kiki is one of the few Ghibli movies I haven't seen, so I may try to join in this time around.
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I just came to realize that writing a story/making a movie like Totoro is not an easy thing to do. It requires a certain amount of ingenuity and heart in order to pull it off effectively without making it seem artifically goofy (writing authetic children is truly a bitch) as well as sympathetic parents. It's really hard…dammit.
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Kiki's is in the second-lowest tier of Miyazaki movie for me, but I haven't watched it in years. Not expecting much, but we'll see.
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This is a great idea. I watch Ghibli movies when my soul needs refreshment. A lot of the slower/slice-of-life ones I found tedious in my youth are the ones I turn to these days. They make me yearn for a place and a time, but not to the point that I'm unhappy with my own life, just makes me want to look for those moments. Totoro means a lot to me on that level. Some very nice thoughts/reviews on it in this thread. Shame I missed the showing today.
I actually desperately need to re-watch Kiki's Delivery Service for that reason. Because as much as I love Totoro and Whisper of the Heart, I didn't care for Kiki's, except the beautiful atmosphere, but that's a given in these. I know it tops a lot of folks' lists.
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This is a great idea. I watch Ghibli movies when my soul needs refreshment. A lot of the slower/slice-of-life ones I found tedious in my youth are the ones I turn to these days. They make me yearn for a place and a time, but not to the point that I'm unhappy with my own life, just makes me want to look for those moments. Totoro means a lot to me on that level. Some very nice thoughts/reviews on it in this thread. Shame I missed the showing today.
Welcome aboard! Even if you don't feel like participating, it's a positive good just to spend an hour and a half watching some good Ghibli. And I think that idea you have of yearning for a place and time is a lovely way of encapsulating the experience.
I actually desperately need to re-watch Kiki's Delivery Service for that reason. Because as much as I love Totoro and Whisper of the Heart, I didn't care for Kiki's, except the beautiful atmosphere, but that's a given in these. I know it tops a lot of folks' lists.
Not questioning your statement at all, but from personal experience, Kiki's is the one Miyazaki film where I've never encountered any truly passionate fans. I'm sure a few will crop up this week. The best I've seen is that it was the one Miyazaki film that my oldest niece enjoyed.
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Welcome aboard! Even if you don't feel like participating, it's a positive good just to spend an hour and a half watching some good Ghibli. And I think that idea you have of yearning for a place and time is a lovely way of encapsulating the experience.
Not questioning your statement at all, but from personal experience, Kiki's is the one Miyazaki film where I've never encountered any truly passionate fans. I'm sure a few will crop up this week. The best I've seen is that it was the one Miyazaki film that my oldest niece enjoyed.
Thank you!! I'll definitely try to watch the current film everyone else is, even if it's not at the same time.
Gosh, you know, I can't remember where my idea about Kiki's came from, it's probably jumbled up in my mind with various forums and Amazon reviews, and it seems to be one of the more "popular" Ghibli films. Though from what I've seen on this thread, you are right, not many passionate fans, so I'm looking forward to the discussions about it!
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Kiki (along with Totoro) is one of the films that's been out longest and most readily available and pushed as a kid's film in America, since the tape era, so its just got the most overall exposure.
It's one of the movies more likely to seen by a casual viewer, where no big deal being put behind the fact that its anime or Miyazaki, its just one of those kids movies. So, less often than the other Ghibli films, its not actually compared to the rest, or you're more likely to have seen it when you were younger… its just sort of on its own thing. (And Naudicaa was "Warriors of the Wind, totally no connotations to anything.)
It wasn't until Mononoke and then Spirited Away (and when Disney got ALL the Ghibli films) that they started really pushing the "artistic Ghibli films" angle and the commonality started becoming more of a brand and a thing.
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tatermoog. you and i really share a different view, I think. I'm a big fan of kiki. I love the story. I love the art, and the character just reminds me of me sometimes. Specially when I am unsure of myself.
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Sorry to the people watching the stream that the last little bit was cut off. I ended up falling asleep (not from the movie, but just because I was up for 24 hours prior), and my router must have disconnected.
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it was right when tatermoog left. lol. I'm cool with it. I've seen it tons of times anyways.
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tatermoog. you and i really share a different view, I think. I'm a big fan of kiki. I love the story. I love the art, and the character just reminds me of me sometimes. Specially when I am unsure of myself.
Ha! I now declare you my arch-nemesis in all things Ghibli.
Really, though, I find the movie charming, and I can completely see how it appeals to you in that way. For me, Whisper of the Heart fills the same niche.
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@Galaxy:
Sorry to the people watching the stream that the last little bit was cut off. I ended up falling asleep (not from the movie, but just because I was up for 24 hours prior), and my router must have disconnected.
No worries, Galaxy. Appreciate you taking the effort to try to stream these for us in the first place. Don't think I've thanked you for that before now, so thanks!
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HA! high five Moog. we can be like ying and yang or something. <3
I don't know if robby mentioned or if I read about the japanese version,
! she never speaks to jiji again, and that represents her growing as a which, as talking to your familiar is something "childish" yet in the english versions, they throw a line in that implies she regains the ability to talk to him again. I always though, it was cause she got her powers back and I never thought about it any other way before. interesting.
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I discussed that at length CU… but put it under a spoiler tag. Since there will be people seeing it for the first time, or for the first time in a looong time, and that's one of the few big deals in the movie.
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@Panda:
I suppose there's little point in my echoing everyone else's sentiments on the movie, but I'll nonetheless say that I adored it. Its 'slice-of-life' nature actually worked in its favor in many ways, I feel, such as allowing me freedom to notice the various little details that went into it. To give some examples from towards the end of the movie, which is most fresh in my mind, there is the way that the Cat Bus held out most of its legs for balance as it ran along the telephone wires, or how, when they found Mei, she begins to run around to the side of the bus that her sister was on, before realizing that the door is on the other side, and turning around. I thought the movie was absolutely full of things like this, none of them really necessary, but all of them adding up to, I feel, create a large part of the movie's charm.
Bit late, but wanted to bring this up. When I was initially trying to do my usual .gifs of favorite scenes (before the software broke), I was spoiled for choice. More than any of Miyazaki's other movies, Totoro is packed to the brim with small character-building details and joyful small touches.
Some other scenes I love:
-the girls' actions upon arriving at the house for the first time. I have nieces that are very similar in age to Mei and Satsuki. They are, in fact, exactly that insane.
-the way Mei clutches her dress when the Soot Sprites disappear into the wall as well as the way she descends the steps while trying to carry one
-Kanta giving away the umbrella then grinning as he runs away (rarely has so much character development been done with so little dialogue)
-the mouse-light looking at the sign when Catbus changes over to "Hospital" (this scene made me cry the first time, not too ashamed to admit it)[edit] ALSO, there's a very creepy theory out there that attempts to make the movie very dark. Short version: Totoro is the God of Death.
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Kiki streaming in 5 minutes.
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[edit] ALSO, there's a very creepy theory out there that attempts to make the movie very dark. Short version: Totoro is the God of Death.
There's about five different videos like this.
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Here's the full story behind the "God of Death" theory, though I might recommend not reading it just so folk can watch the movie without this in the back of their heads: http://fellowof.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/an-inconvenient-truth-about-my-neighbor-totoro/ Also, a quick thought on the ending of Totoro, with additional ending spoilers for Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, and Kiki's Delivery Service:
! Apparently Miyazaki is on the record as saying that the end of the movie also signals the end of Mei and Satsuki's interactions with Totoro. If the two girls had stayed in Totoro's world, he said, they would be stuck there forever [this ignores the fact that he would later use Mei in his Kittenbus short at the Ghibli Museum]. In Kiki, he suggests that she is no longer able to communicate with Jiji since she's matured beyond that stage. And then, in Spirited Away, he ends with Chihiro walking away from the spirits' bathhouse, apparently forgetting everything that happened (though it wasn't just a dream). To a lesser extent, in Porco Rosso, Miyazaki has Porco fly away, never to see his friends again.
! So, uh…what's the deal with all this? It feels odd to me that movies filled with such magic and imagination have clear ending points for that magic and imagination. I was legitimately disappointed when I first read Miyazaki's comments on Totoro and Spirited Away, and it still makes me a little sad when I watch them.
! Anybody else feel this way? Or does it seem perfectly natural or a strong/good directorial decision? -
I'm busy with work and will be for the next week, so I might not get to Kiki for a bit, (I intend to try tomorrow morning) but in the meantime.,..
the closest you're going to get to seeing Mei and the Kittenbus without going to Japan.
! Apparently Miyazaki is on the record as saying that the end of the movie also signals the end of Mei and Satsuki's interactions with Totoro. If the two girls had stayed in Totoro's world, he said, they would be stuck there forever [this ignores the fact that he would later use Mei in his Kittenbus short at the Ghibli Museum].
Well, if Satsuki grew up a little, but Mei was still the proper age for it…. that would fit with that happening.
! So, uh…what's the deal with all this? It feels odd to me that movies filled with such magic and imagination have clear ending points for that magic and imagination. I was legitimately disappointed when I first read Miyazaki's comments on Totoro and Spirited Away, and it still makes me a little sad when I watch them.
Now that you point out its a recurring theme, yeah, that is odd… but I dunno. On the one hand, it IS sad to assume they don't have further adventures like that one. But rather than tragic and sad, I think it might just be the opposite.
Its a way of saying "yes, these adventures are absolutely real and true and happen all the time... all children's stories are true. Growing up you forget them over time as other things take over, but... it doesn't change the fact that the wonderous thing DID happen for real." Especially given how readily the adults in the films accept that things are happening that they aren't privy to. Are the adults just playing along and humoring the kids, or do they actually vaugley remember such things from their own childhoods?
Chronicles fo Narnia had one of the siblings outgrow the adventures. Peter Pan has Wendy growing up, having kids, and no more adventures for her. the Phantom Tollbooth is a one time things. Alice in Wonderland didn't have a lot of sequels. (Wizard of Oz did...)
I went to Disneyland when I was 5. Real, tangible experience. Have photos of it and memorabilia and everything.... but I don't remember it. At all. I remember my trip to Disneyworld when I was 12 a little, but.. mostly have forgotten that too. Doesn't mean I wasn't happy or that it wasn't magical or it didn't happen. Is it possible that at some point when I was 4 that I, unbeknownst to all, had a magical adventure that I no longer remember? I suppose it's possible!
I think its a fairly common theme for these kinds of stories. You can have a great adventure that no one believes, and you'll forget it when you grow older, just a natural art of growing up and finding different things to enjoy... but it still happened.
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First off, I apologize to anybody watching the stream that it had a few outages at the beginning. Fortunately, it stopped disconnecting after about 30 minutes in. I also apologize for having to stream the english dub (if anybody had an issue with that), but I was unable to download due to my connection being crap most of the week, and had to use a stream that only had the English dub on it. I've got the next few movies already downloaded, so that won't happen again.
Anyways, almost forgot to write my first impressions of Kiki.
I found it pretty to be much better than the previous movies that have been streamed. The other ones didn't keep my interest the whole time, and I would browse other websites whenever I felt I wasn't interested, but this one kept my attention the whole time. It had a simple plot, but sometimes I feel simple
The one thing that was odd to me was that she was a witch… but all she could do was fly and talk to her cat (until the end). Maybe I misunderstood or something, but what exactly was she training for?
Other than any of that though, it was a good film.
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i think it's more of a growing experience. her talents didn't have much to do with magic and more to do with the person she is. She's not much of a witch but she's one hell of a little girl.
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Maybe. I'm bad at understanding the deeper meaning on the first watch, so I didn't think of it that way.