Favorite And Least Favorite Studio Ghibli Movie?

[LotsoA113]

What's your favorite Studio Ghibli movie? After rewatching most of his films (still gotta watch Howl's Moving Castle), I'd still say Princess Mononoke is my favorite, followed by Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.

What're your favorites?

[athena]

I'd say Princess Mononoke and Porco Rosso would be mine... and Kiki's Delivery Service as well just for Phil Hartman's excellent dub of the black cat.

I personally wasn't a big fan of Howl's Moving Castle. I saw it once in the theatre and while most of it was okay, the ending was one of those "what the heck just happened?!" that left me shaking my head in a very dissatisfied way.

[LotsoA113]

I'd say Princess Mononoke and Porco Rosso would be mine...

Yeah, I loved Porco too, not as much as Totoro but Porco is still great in my opinion. Michael Keaton did an excellent job in it as Porco, thought he fit the character.

[LotsoA113]

Now that I have edited the title..my least favorite is likely Castle In The Sky...feels too long and a bit padded at places.

[Randall]

I re-watched Spirited Away with my kids last night, and I think it even more firmly cemented it as my favourite. Mononoke is up there, too. Grave of the Fireflies extremely good, but it is devastating to watch, so it's hard to call it a "favorite."

By far, my least favorite is My Neighbors the Yamadas, though it's not necessarily a bad film. I just didn't quite get the humour, I think. All the others are good to great.

[LotsoA113]

Yeah, Yamadas ain't too good....Though I still think Castle is weakest and Yamada's a close second. Really, though, Ghibli (and Mr. Myisazki..sorry about the misspelling) haven't made bad films..just weaker than usual ones.

[droosan]

My opinion is 100% opposite of yours, Lotso; Castle in the Sky is my favorite of Miyazaki's feature films (with Porco Rosso a close second), while Princess Mononoke ranks 'least' among his films, for me (below even his pre-Ghibli works, IMO).

Though, there is a Ghibli film which I do 'hate' to watch: Graveyard of the Fireflies .. mostly because it's just so very depressing.

Castle in the Sky is just right up my alley, anime-wise; I was already a fan of Miyazaki's TV series Conan: Boy of the Future .. and one of my other favorite anime TV series, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, rather unashamedly used CitS as its 'template' (substituting the works of Jules Verne in place of Jonathan Swift). I love that (in all three anime) the story starts small, but slowly builds into a three-way chase/quest .. that the 'villains' in the early portion become allies halfway through .. and their whole whimsical retro-sci-fi 'vibe' (basically 'steampunk', but well before that term was coined). They are also fairly light adventure fare; serious emotionally-charged stuff does happen, now and then, but humor is never very far away .. and, though their plots can sometimes be complex, the friendship of the two main characters is the simple heart of their stories.

Princess Mononoke is kinda the opposite of all that.

Which doesn't make it 'bad' .. just .. outside the realm of what I personally enjoy.

[Bill1978]

My favourite would have to be Spirited Away, I'm not really a fan of anime and even though I had a fan telling me how awesome anime was I just could never get into it. I watched Spirited Away and was so blown away that I needed to go and find all the other work of Miyazaki. So for that, Spirited Away will always be my favourite

My least favourite would be Porco Rosso, just because it was set during a war and I could never really accept that a man with a pig's hed would exist in the real world like it was presented in the movie. It's the only work of Ghibli's I've watched once.

Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle have certain parts that confused my little brain which stop them from being really great. I enjoyed Castle In The Sky and I think I would have enjoyed Kiki's Delivery Service more if I was a little girl. Strangley though having said that I was swept away with Ponyo and even my niece and nephew loved Ponyo (it was their first experience of an anime so I wasn't sure if they would enjoy it). I love the powerful story of Grave Of The Fireflies and thought it was great to see a non-US experience of the end of WWII.

I think it helped that I was not familiar with the source material for Tales From Earthsea, but it suffered from the same fate of Mononoke and Howl's, certain parts confused me even though I thought it was a good gilm. I'm just grateful I didn't have to wait years like the poor people in the US have had to wait for it's release.

[LotsoA113]

Okay, just finished Howls...likely the weakest of the Ghibli bunch. Sorry folks, but that film just had a bit too MUCH oddness. At least Ponyo had one foot on the ground.

Still, it versus Castle in The Sky make for an interesting fight.

[Dan]

Favorite: Hands down, Princess Mononoke

Least Favorite: ... tough call. I'd have to rewatch everything, but at the present moment Castle in the Sky comes to mind. Though that's not to say it's bad, it's a great movie. Just doesn't rank over the others.

[EricJ]

If Howl's had just been Hayao making up rehashes of all his old Mononoke and Spirited riffs (oo, look, the hero's curse erupts whenever he thinks of war!) with no particular direction or explanation, it would have been enough of a slog to get through--

But Diana Wynne-Jones's book was so cleverly plotted--if tuned to readers already familiar with European fairytale cliche's--that seeing Ghibli throw out the scenes that did make sense in favor of artsy, overused ones that didn't just seemed that much more of a disappointment.
Those who'd read the book had already imagined a much better Ghibli adaptation than Hayao almost quickly seemed to toss off.

[Randall]

Howl's didn't really do much for me, either, but as always I appreciated the imagination on display.

Whisper of the Heart is underrated, BTW. It's more of a teen drama, as opposed to a fantasy, but it's wonderfully done. I'm guessing that a lot of people skip that one, but it's a great little movie. I love the look at the Japanese family lifestyle.

[droosan]

Just curious whether those who rank Castle in the Sky so low have seen only the english-dubbed version, or the original japanese dialogue with subtitles.

For my own part, I have never seen the movie dubbed .. but I've heard nothing but bad opinions of the dub track itself. I wonder whether that works against some audiences' perception of the movie as a whole.

CitS is genuinely my favorite of Miyazaki's feature films .. so I am surprised to see it ranks as so many others' least-favorite.

------------------

My favorite of Isao Takahata's Ghibli movies is Only Yesterday .. which, sadly, remains unavailable on Region-1 DVD; though, it is available in english via the UK (requiring a Region-2 or multi-Region player). It's a bit 'slow' storywise, but basically it's a poignant 'coming-of-age' tale mixed with the melancholy of a mid-life crisis .. with a wonderfully rewarding ending sequence that has never failed to put a tearful smile on the face of anyone I've shared the movie with. Well-worth seeking out!

[EricJ]

Just curious whether those who rank Castle in the Sky so low have seen only the english-dubbed version, or the original japanese dialogue with subtitles.
For my own part, I have never seen the movie dubbed .. but I've heard nothing but bad opinions of the dub track itself. I wonder whether that works against some audiences' perception of the movie as a whole.

The Disney dub is good (by Kiki-era standards), the movie itself just runs on WAYYY too long at a solid 2 hrs.
Once they get past the chases to give us the Nadia-like plot revelation, seems like it won't end until they show us every darn crumbling brick.

[Dan]

Like I said, I'd have to rewatch the films since it has been a long while. But length would probably be the main thing about Castle that has me ranking it low.