Howl’s Moving Castle has been a nasty speed bump in my attempt to finish my Miyazaki-a-thon-. Howl is by no means bad but has never resonated with me. The characters are okay, the concept clever, and the animation has its moments. I think it has something to do with the plot. Normally, I wouldn’t critique a Miyazaki plot too heavily. If anyone has been able to spit in the face of the conventional story structure and show there are other ways to tell stories, it’s Miyazaki. Though in Howl, I can’t help but feel the movie loses momentum far too early. The suspense and action feel too spaced out. In all honesty, I’ve never watched more than an hour of Howl before becoming bored, confused, and hungry for bacon.

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Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, or should I say “Warriors of the Wind” may have been the first Miyazaki film I ever saw, but Princess Mononoke was the first where I became aware of Miyazaki as a director. Since no Americans I knew saw it in theaters, I clearly remember people like my older sister’s friends or my dad’s friends saying, “You have to rent Princess Mononoke.” Kind of crazy to think there was a time where you had to rent something from Blockbuster or else you couldn’t see it. I heard this film’s praise for years until I finally gave it a shot two years ago. Did it live up to the hype? Definitely.

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Before my Miyazaki exodus, I did some reading on some message boards. Sifting through all the disturbing Miyazaki fan art, I’d often encounter posts regarding, “Miyazaki’s Best and Worst Movie”. On numerous occasions I discovered that many Miyazaki fans rate Porco Rosso as Miyazaki’s weakest. Well surprise, surprise, I loved this movie. Porco Rosso is a vastly underrated film about rediscovering humanity and doing what you’re most passionate about (in this case aviation). I love that Porco Rosso uses real historical events as jumping off points to tell an original story with just a hint of fantasy. In my opinion, Porco Rosso is one of Miyazaki’s best written films.

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I’d be lying if I said I was excited to watch Kiki’s Delivery Service. A film about a teen-girl who delivers packages on a flying broom? It sounds like a bad episode of Sabrina, or an assembly line made novel for pre-teen girls. The latter is closer in that Kiki’s Delivery Service was a 1985 children’s fantasy novel by Eiko Kadono. Though I apologize for assuming something with that title would be bad. Both the novel and the film have many fans, and I’m glad to say I’m now one of them.

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King Totoro is to Ghibli what Mickey Mouse is to Disney. Any kind of merchandise you can imagine and I promise that you can find Totoro’s face on it. Simply put, King Totoro is an iconic image not just in Japan but worldwide. Studio Ghibli even uses Totoro’s image as the production logo that plays before every Ghibli film. King Totoro is a character that represents the true innocence and magic of childhood and that along with his unique design have made him one of the most memorable animated characters of all time. My Neighbor Totoro is the 1988 Miyazaki film that started a universal love affair and is still one of Miyazaki’s most memorable.

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