Favorite Studio Ghibli Movie?

I've been hearing a lot off fuse about this "Studio Ghibli" with Ni No Kuni coming out. What are the must watch movies of theirs?

Oh, and I guess I saw Arrietty and didn't know that it was a Ghibli film. No idea how.

Princess Mononoke.

Howl's Moving Castle, i dont know why but i like it.

I have actually never seen a Studio Ghibli movie.

Must-watch:

• My Neighbour Totoro
• Princess Mononoke
• Spirited Away
• Ponyo
• Howl's Moving Castle

They're all great though. Spirited Away is my favourite of the bunch.

Porco Rosso for sure. Beautiful animation and music. So charming and it has a nice message about independence that I really enjoy.

Can't say enough about it.

howl's moving castle- but they're all worth watching.

Porco Rosso is really good.

it is also the only Studio Ghibli film I have watched.

Nausicaä is Miyazaki's best work.

Princess Mononoke, easily.

Grave of the Fireflies is one of the best war movies out there. I'd say that is my favorite Ghibli film.

  Princess Mononok and Castle in the Sky

Spirited Away, I love Kiki too. I admittedly haven't seen a lot of the older staples, though.

Motherfucking Totoro, y'all!

If it says Directed by Hayao Miyazaki then it is worth watching. Every single movie the guy has made is brilliant. My favorite Miyazaki movie is Nausicaa of the Vally of the Wind. It was made before the founding of Ghibli but it was done by all the people who founded it and Ghibli distributes it today. As for actual Ghibli movies, I don't think I could pick a favorite. Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and Howl's Moving Castle are all great adventure movies. Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro are brilliant kids movies that I highly enjoy as an adult. Kiki's Delivery Service is a sweet romance and Porco Rosso is probably the most different of the bunch, being about a man who turns into a pig and flies a WW2 plane. Weird movie. Still great but not as good as some of the others I would say. That's Miyazaki. He also wrote Whisper of the Heart which is a really sweet and well written romance, and Arrietty which you said you saw.

Then you have the films by Isao Takahata. His movies tend to focus on either Japanese folklore or Japanese culture. As such his movies don't always translate as well as Miyazaki movies. His best film is also maybe the greatest anime ever made, Grave of the Fireflies. It is absolutely devastating. One of the most powerful movies ever made. He also worked on Pom Poko which is about Tanooki legends and My Neighbors the Yamadas which is about Japanese house life. Both those films are, shall we say, a bit hard to grasp for someone who isn't Japanese. His final film is Only Yesterday which has never been released in the US, although you can find it in many European countries.

Next you have a couple films by Hayao's son Goro Miyazaki. His first film is Tales of Earthsea. It is really bad and nothing like the books. Only Ghibli movie I wouldn't recommend. Then there is Up on Poppy Hill which is still getting released throughout the west. It hit theaters in the US just a month ago or so and in a very limited form so I haven't seen it yet. Goro directed while his father wrote it.

And the final Ghibli film is The Cat Returns which is a fairy tale about a talking cat. I actually really enjoyed it even though quite a few people say it isn't as good as most other Ghibli movies.

Basically the essentials are Miyazaki's films and Grave of the Fireflies. Watch Pom Poko, My Neighbors the Yamadas, and Only Yesterday only if you are really into Japanese culture. Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns are both good and worth watching if you have time. Skip Tales of Earthsea. Hope that helps!

@Ravenlight said:

Motherfucking Totoro, y'all!

Man, what the hell did they do to My Neighbor Totoro when they brought it out of Japan?

@Video_Game_King said:

@Ravenlight said:

Motherfucking Totoro, y'all!

Man, what the hell did they do to My Neighbor Totoro when they brought it out of Japan?

They made it awesome...er?

Favorite Studio Ghibli movie? Grave of the Fireflies. Favorite Miyazaki movie? Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

I bet I'm the only person here who says Whisper of the Heart

@Ravenlight said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@Ravenlight said:

Motherfucking Totoro, y'all!

Man, what the hell did they do to My Neighbor Totoro when they brought it out of Japan?

They made it awesome...er?

The joke was that they changed the title to "Motherfucking Totoro, Y'all!".

Howl's. Just so amazing.

If you only watch one it has to be Spirited Away. It's the gateway film to Studio Ghibli.

@Video_Game_King said:

@Ravenlight said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@Ravenlight said:

Motherfucking Totoro, y'all!

Man, what the hell did they do to My Neighbor Totoro when they brought it out of Japan?

They made it awesome...er?

The joke was that they changed the title to "Motherfucking Totoro, Y'all!".

Oh! Is joke! Is funny! HA HA

I've only seen Princess Mononoke and love it.

Spirited Away is the only one I truly remember. Really interesting film I'd say.
 
I'm pretty sure I've also seen Howl's Moving Castle, but I can't remember it too well.

Castle of Cagliostro

@tarvis: Agreed.

Nausicaa has a bit more grit than Miyazaki's later work. It's also the only manga he ever wrote. You should read that if you haven't, there's a surprising amount of story left out of the movie.

I suppose its lack of popularity might have something to do with the travesty that was "Warriors of the Wind". I mean look at this crap:

There are no flying horses in the movie. No lightsabers either, least of wielded by a Giant Warrior depicted here as being about the same height as everyone else, despite actually being like 50 stories tall, unless you count the one they're standing on, but it's pretty hard to tell those two are one and the same. The main character? The girl hidden away in the upper right corner. Who the hell is skeletal dude with the laser blaster? Where did he find a laser blaster? Or the guy holding the "reins" on the Giant Warrior? (lol) I guess the English voice actors weren't even given a translation, they just made it up. Not to mention that running time means they cut out at least 20 minutes of content from an already possibly-trying-to-do-too-much movie.

Neat story from Wikipedia:

Dissatisfied with Warriors of the Wind, Miyazaki suggested that people should put it "out of their minds." Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki have asked fans to forget its existence and later adopted a strict "no-edits" clause for future foreign releases of its films. On hearing Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein would try to cut Princess Mononoke to make it more marketable, one of Studio Ghibli's producers sent an authentic katana with a simple message: "No cuts".

I can't imagine what they would have done to Princess Mononoke...

@project343 said:

Must-watch:

• My Neighbour Totoro
• Princess Mononoke
• Spirited Away
• Ponyo
• Howl's Moving Castle

They're all great though. Spirited Away is my favourite of the bunch.

This is a good starter list!

It used to be Spirited Away for the longest time but that changed once I saw Nausicaa (I know it's not technically a Studio Ghibli film but whatever). I would consider that movie absolutely perfect if the ending went in a minor different direction.

@StarvingGamer said:

I bet I'm the only person here who says Whisper of the Heart

Ghibli's more grounded movies don't get a lot of credit, that movie was seriously really great and had a solid story to tell. Out of all the non-fantastical movies though I would have to put Grave of the Fireflies over Whisper. That movie hit me so hard in such a way that I honestly can't bring myself to watch it a second time.

It is seriously such a depressing yet beautiful movie that I don't see myself getting the same experience ever again that I got from my very first viewing.

I need to get to watching From Up on Poppy Hill but the dub will be releasing soon and it looks like Ghibli is dropping two movies this summer, one of them is by Miyazaki and it looks like another grounded in reality kind so I'm pretty excited about that.

TOTORO!

It's not a movie, it's a hug.

@believer258 said:

I have actually never seen a Studio Ghibli movie.

Oh god change that immediately!

Castle in the Sky and Porco Rosso

I believe I owe a large part of what constitutes my mental makeup to Studio Ghibli. My favorite Ghibli films, in order:
 

1. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
2. My Neighbor Totoro
3. Spirited Away
4. Howl's Moving Castle
5. Pom Poko
6. Princess Mononoke
7. Porco Rosso
8. Castle in the Sky
9. Kiki's Delivery Service
10. Ponyo
11. The Cat Returns

I still haven't seen Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbors the Yamadas, or Whisper of the Heart, and I think that's probably criminal. I feel really bad about it.

My favorite when watching it was Totoro but it has very little rewatch value. So I will go for spirited away.

I recently got around to watching Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and it's now my new favorite "Ghibli" movie.

@gaminghooligan said:

Princess Mononoke.

The correct choice.

This has definitely been a forum thread before, but I'm always glad to contribute to a Ghibli thread. Princess Mononoke consistently brings a tear to my eye - during the three-way fight with Ashitaka displaying his demon 'powers', and sometimes at the end.

If we're discussing Miyazaki as opposed to strictly Studio Ghibli, I believe he directed Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro before SG was a thing. Unfortunately, that's the only Lupin III experience I've had, a problem I plan to remedy, but the movie is amazing - it manages to balance serious things like love along with a comical approach to the animation and "physics". Loved the characters and action scenes. It was on Netflix Streaming a while back - might be again.

Only one's I've watched are Howl's Moving Castle and Tales of Earthsea. Both were OK in my book.

@Phatmac said:

Grave of the Fireflies is one of the best war movies out there. I'd say that is my favorite Ghibli film.

Yep.

My Neighbor Totoro!

@gaminghooligan said:

Princess Mononoke.

then nausicaa, then spirited away, then my neighbor totoro (hate putting it down that low)

shamefully i admit those are the only ones i watched front to back (multiple watches of first three). i do adore all those films. i watched parts of Kiki's and Howl's and didn't go back to either as they didn't really grab me, or more accurately out of my own laziness. one day i have to grab them on blu-ray or something and watch them all.

from what i've seen, i'm personally a fan of the grittier and more sweeping ghibli (miyazaki) movies. there's just such nuance and breadth in movies like Princess Mononoke, and it feels like not a minute's wasted in them. as much as i love the surrealism of Spirited Away and the trials of Chihiro, there's just something about kind of the fast and loose plotting of it that knocks it down a bit in my ranking. My Neighbor Totoro's a sweet and beautiful film, but there's something about it that lacks the import of the top two, imo.

don't know why i've not seen his other films but that's something i definitely need to rectify.

Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle.

Princess Mononoke

@CH3BURASHKA: Yep. I think it was actually Miyazaki's debut as a director. Watch all the Lupin III you can and read the manga, it was my first anime and I still hold it in pretty high regard

My Neighbor Totoro. All the way, every day.

My Neighbor Totoro was the first Ghibli film I watched and is still my favorite by a good distance, albeit I've yet to watch a Studio Ghibli film I've disliked.

Other good ones: Spirited Away. Howls Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky

My Neighbor Totoro and Nausicaa: of the Valley of the Wind are the classic Ghibli movies, at least to me.

Can't recommend the Nausicaa manga enough, the movie covers only about the half the content and it's one of the best manga, hell comics in general I've ever read. There was a recent hardcover release of it that's incredible.

Spirited Away is my favorite movie out of the Studio Ghibli, but hell, all of their stuff I totally love!

Princess Mononoke is by far my favorite, and is one of my favorite movies. I really enjoyed Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky as well.

And, without ever having seen more than about four minutes of it online, I'm gonna say that Whisper of the Heart is also special. There's a cover of a popular American song in there. For some reason, even thinking about that cover can make me well up a bit.

Nausicaä and Princess Mononoke are both top tier Ghibli movies. Spirited Away follows closely behind them.