h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I can't claim that these movies changed my life, but they were so extraordinary that I became a fan of anime to the limited extent that I would be able to access it (I wanted to continue to feed my other appetites. Concentrating on one genre would have made me feeltoo restricted)

Thanks for sharing - I agree that they certainly are outstanding films unlike anything made in the west - but I wouldn't want to give up everything else either

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"Howl's moving castle" took its inspiration from a young adult book by Diana Wynne Jones, who was an English novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. The West would have found a studio to animate H.M.C., but it didn't. I'm glad that Miyazaki got the chance to work his magic with it. I liked the fire (how many cartoonists would manage to make a fire into an interesting character?). I loved the scene near the end, when the Witch invades the home of Howl's family.

"Spirited away" seems more in keeping with the nature-worshipping (or -respecting) aspect of Japanese culture. The bad guys are developers who would destroy forests and wetlands to build suburban tracts. "Princess Mononoke" seems even more definitely in this vein. The greedy get turned into pigs (not the first time greed has been regarded as piggish). There's a scene late in the movie when a character seems to be walking on water. It's mesmerizing.

I'd also like to mention "Secret life of Arrietty,"
though it's 2010 and not Miyazaki at all. It's based on "The Borrowers," another book by an English author, in this case Mary Norton, about people 4 inches tall who cohabit a house that a regular-sized family lives in. You can tell who the good characters are (in this case the daughter), as they are the ones who befriend the borrowers.

Pure pleasure, but not without morals and a bit of magic!




http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074C3X4JY?ref_=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tpbk&binding=paperback

Don't worry - 'The Secret Life of Arietty' will be mentioned in more detail in the next entry in the series - though for me the BBC television series 'The Borrowers' will always be definitive.

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Thank you so much for your entries.