I spent quite a bit of time today watching old Ghibli classics, like Totoro, Nausicaa and Kiki’s Delivery Service. I have also watched Laputa, Umi ga Kikoeru (its English title is Ocean Waves) and Princess Mononoke over the past few days.
While I wouldn’t say that Ghibli is my favourite studio in the whole world (KyoAni comes close to that though |DDDD) I can say that they do a great job bringing characters to life every time. I’m not too clear about the history of Ghibli (I’d like to visit the museum someday D: ) but it just struck me how Ghibli’s been around for so long! And it’s definitely become an irreplaceable part of my childhood. Even if I forget the storylines, the music from movies like Totoro bring back the nostalgic feelings from when I was a child.
Some of the Ghibli titles are quite fun, but a little more nonsensical, like (more recently) Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle (hm I watched this quite a while back though), Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Laputa was, to me, a mix of a little bit of serious and more fun (I accredit it to that super-optimistic little kid, haha), in addition to Umi ga Kikoeru (well, kinda…). Others like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa were quite serious all throughout, which I do prefer. I notice some similarities when they have the same theme of protecting the environment and promoting peace and harmony amongst humans…. “What a wonderful tree!” in both Mononoke-hime and Nausicaa haha. And most of the time, the stories involve little girls somehow O: In any case, Spirited Away strikes me as kind of being somewhere I can’t really put my finger on for now, but I plan to rewatch it sometime soon. Spirited Away and Mononoke-hime are by far my favourite Ghibli movies. I also plan to watch Grave of the Fireflies, but I hear it’s really really really depressing.
Of course, I notice the people never really look that much different, but it doesn’t bother me too much. It’s quite a distinct style that tells me it’s Ghibli, anyway. The proportions are also just right :9 Meanwhile, the backgrounds really do vary quite a bit, since they’re telling a story for a different world sometimes. For Ponyo, I remember how everything was bright and pretty, but in Nausicaa, everything is dark and even when it’s a pretty sight, there is some sense of sadness, maybe even a little bit of fear (Ohms and the decaying world D: ) accompanied with it and the colours are more mellow. Whatever it is, you can bet most of the time that it’ll turn out more or less a good match for the storytelling. Some of the scenes of the aftermath of war and destruction really do strike some feeling of anguish in me, while the pretty ones just make me smile. Hm…. Just how much outsourcing do they have to do to get backgrounds this pretty? O:
Oh my, it’s already this late… And I haven’t bathed ack. Well well, I guess it’s time to end my post. Till next time!
PS. Hm, I’m beginning to think that this habit of mine of using emoticons is proving to be rather hard to get rid of…
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