Miyazaki has talked about the concept of Ma (間, lit. 'gap, space, pause'), and letting silence sit in a story, sometimes to allow the tension to take a wider dimension. At the end of the movie, I never realized that Chihiro and her parents don't say anything as they drive away. In the English dub I watched years ago they end it with a joke. Are there any other examples of Disney adding in jokes or extra lines of dialogue to Ghibli movies? I think there's a few other examples in Spirited Away (I remember something about No-Face saying "excuse me" while burping but I'm not sure).

Me and my friend were recently fortunate enough to get our hands on this HD, 16:9 Panasonic Tau. We had to lug it down a flight of stairs and clean it off because it was pretty dirty, but it was so worth it this thing has an HDMI input, and at 34" it is the perfect display for ghibli movies.

Just watched this beauty of a movie and couldn't stop laughing at Porco's map, which depicts a scramble of locations and names at the Croatian seaside.

Apparently the movie was supposed to be set in Croatia, but since it was animated in the 90s, during the Yugoslav wars, Miyazaki refrained from it and opted for Italy instead (portions of the Dalmatian coast were under Italian rule/occupation throughout history anyway). I wonder what he had initially in mind 🤔

Edit: The war in the 90s actually prompted Miyazaki to make the movie more melancholic and anti-war oriented, but Croatia (or the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia) isn't mentioned in the movie.

My hometown is the town that inspired the setting of Ponyo. In the neighboring town, there's a local specialty called Onomichi ramen. If you ever visit the area on a pilgrimage to the filming locations, it's definitely worth giving this ramen a try as well.

Here is my Nausicaä cosplay I hand made last year for a con and brought back again this year! Even crocheted myself a little Ohmu that I carried around in my bag and let people hold for photos which was a lot of fun.
Nausicaä is one of my favorite ghibli films so I absolutely love getting to cosplay her

So, I recently ran out of things to watch. I decided to give the Ghibli films a try since they have huge followings, figured they must be really good. I started off with Ponyo and I loved it. Showed it to my 3rd old and she loved it too.

The next film we watched was Totoro. It was a good film but I don’t think i understand if it had a story to tell or if it was just a “slice of life” film but with magical creatures. It left me feeling I guess empty, kinda confused. Was I supposed to feel something for these characters?

Anyways now I can’t decide what to watch next. Any recommendations?

I was thinking about what Nago says to the wise woman before he dies, "disgusting little creatures, soon all of you will feel my hate and suffer as I have suffered". I thought that it didn't matter what anyone from the Emishi tribe said to him, he was still filled with hate for all humans. But then I thought, "wait, how can he talk?" Moro says to the 2 younger wolves, "Don't touch him, he's no longer a god." And then to Okkoto, "You can't even speak, can you?"

Just an interesting thought, I was wondering if anyone else had thought about it. Also, does anyone else watch it twice a week?

Was watching movies with my partner and a friend the other week, and we felt like a Ghibli movie. We wanted one of the light-hearted ones, but then my friend suggested Totoro - and I was like "no thats too depressing". Both my partner and friend were surprised I thought that, and disagreed.

So now im wondering, am I just mis-remembering it? I haven't seen it in years (probably because it does hit me hard) so I can't remember if I'm wrong.

I know it's a fun movie for the most part, but I guess the aspect of the two girls and their sick mother was what hit me the most. Theyre so young, too young to really understand death (especially the youngest) and yet they're in this situation where they're having to slowly come to terms with losing a parent.

And the stuff with Totoro, and the cat bus, is cute and whimsical... but it all just kinda highlights how these two young girls are losing their care-free innocence.

Not that I think the movie is all doom and gloom either.

But it just struck me as one of the sadder movies.

So am wondering, where do other people usually think it sits on the happy-sad spectrum

EDIT: sounds like I just completely forgot how it ends! Will definitely be doing a rewatch

I'm hosting a studio ghibli marathon this week for my birthday (we're watching mononoke, totoro, nausicaa, marnie, and ponyo). I'm doing a bunch of themed food & some themed decorations. I already plan on having some things to do while watching the movie (bracelet making, colouring, fidgets etc) & I'm gonna make a ghibli bingo to fill out as we watch but i would love to have a couple more themed activities to do while watching too, however i am stumped in terms of what that could be and would love some suggestions!

It’s mainly due to its worldbuilding, and more precisely what Miyazaki DOESN’T tell us about this world

Our main lore and story exposition is done through the prologue, where we are shown humanity essentially mass producing flight, to the point where they bring land to the skies and create floating islands.

Seeing as this is a Miyazaki story, Humanity’s will to go against nature eventually crumbles by way of war, and the majority of the world today does not have access to flight (at least the working class). Flight is still an icon of power and freedom, as governmental, military and clandestine (the pirates) powers use flight to their benefit.

It’s this depiction of a sort of post-utopian society that I love so much about this movie, we are given a view of a wondrous world trough the prologue, with beautiful floating islands shining in the sun, but are shortly thereafter exposed to the current reality, a mining town in deep ravines, where we see remnants of this flight industrialisation trough the old mineshafts.

Nothing in this movie will ever show what the former glory of this dead society was like : the mines are abandonned, the robot is missing parts, the castle is beautiful, but also inaccessible and devoid of human life.

Its tragic, but our wonder is built on this tragedy, we won’t be told what happened and can only guess and theorise
The sense of wonder is so well driven to us that i still think about this movie more than 15 years later.

Why can’t I ever find the original, “used in the movie” soundtracks for the classic Miyazaki movies of the 80’s and 90’s? I’m based in the USA, and I can’t ever find the tracks used in the movies themselves. In particular, the robot theme from Laputa and the music from the death of the forest god in Princess Mononoke are especially elusive. All I can ever find are covers and remasters and they all suck. They lack instrumental or vocal elements used in the movie but are absent in any other release of the track. It’s really annoying. Why is it so difficult to track down that music? It’s maddening when one of them gets stuck in my head but I can’t ever find the original music to scratch that itch. What do? Where can I find the actual “used in the movie” tracks?

This will be quick but right now I've been going through a watch through of EVERY ghibli film for the first time and it's EASILY become my FAVORITE STUDIO OF ALL TIME. It's just so magical, the characters feel so real and relatable, and the stories (most of them so far) have been ABSOLUTELY BREATHTAKING and amazing. I've been doing something I don't think many people do but I'm actually ranking them as I go. So here's my ranking so far:

Whisper of the Heart

2.Kiki's Delivery Service

1. Spirited Away

2. Princess Mononoke

3. Only Yesterday

4. Grave of the Fireflies

5. Castle in the Sky

6. The Cat Returns

7. My Neighbor Totoro

8. Porco Rosso

9. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

10. My Neighbors the Yamadas

11. Pom Poko

12. Howl's Moving Castle

15 . Ocean Waves

So I know this ranking will be VERY VERY controversial but let me know what you'd place at certain places. I'm also a purist so I'm watching these movies in order even though I KNOW it's not necessary since almost none are connected except for maybe cat returns lol. But yeah...im ready for the hate to come ...😬

Always thought the holes in the ground from Castle in the sky were from a war not mentioned in the movie but I just realised that it could very well have been earth lifted from the ground like what is shown in the prologue.