Miyazaki Films on Cartoon Network!!!

[Kämpfer]

Starting at 7:30pm Saturday, March 18, Toonami will celebrate their 9th anniversary by airing a month of Miyazaki films:

Spirited Away - March 18
Princess Mononoke - March 25
Castle in the Sky - April 1
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind - April 8

They should be airing on Saturdays from 7-11pm...

[Loker]

and if you are watching those stick around for an hour and a half and catch GITS SAC!

[katsy]

excellent! I've only seen half of Nausicaa cuz the viewing i went to was very noisy and destracting, so i left... now I'll get to see the whole thing! ^_^

[katsy]

random fact, but I was doing some reading for my Japanese culture and life class and the required reading was about anime. It said that Princess Mononoke broke the box office upon it's release in Japan and is still the the highest grossing film in Japan today

[Kämpfer]

Yeah, I think I remember seeing that somewhere. Definitely a deserving movie, unfortunently the top movie in the US remains Titanic.... It's hard to name a favorite, but I would say I definitely lean toward Mononoke or Spirited Away.

[euclidean©]

wow...way to bring this thread back to life...lol....j/k....I didn't really care for Titanic....but hey...w/e....is there going to be another Miyazaki month anytime soon? cause that'd be cool....or I guess I could download them all....but that's one of the movies Id feel bad about downloading lol.

[katsy]

Titanic is the top movie in the US?? Well, now that I think about it I guess it's not surprising, it was a good movie but is nothing compared to Miyazaki films. I would have to say my favorite Miyazaki film is Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and The Cat Returns. I still need to see Nausica and Grave of the Fireflys though...

another thing I found interesting in the reading was the creation of an animated movie called, "Kimba the White Lion" which was made in the 1960's by an animator named Osamu Tezuka. This animation is exactly like the lion king in almost all ways. You have the evil uncle lion who trys to corrupt Kimba.. the father lion dying... I wonder where disney got their idea... lol

[euclidean©]

"My neighbor Totoro"? not sure how u spell his name though....but it was a good movie ...anyone else heard of it? Linda has it on VHS....lol she use to watch it when she was a kid all the time. id suggest it to anyone

[BARK BARK BARK BARK]

Titanic is NOT the top movie. It's the highest grossing film. Those are 2 very different things.

These are the top 10 RATED of all time:
1. 9.1 The Godfather (1972) 184,358
2. 9.1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) 222,251
3. 8.9 The Godfather: Part II (1974) 104,400
4. 8.8 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 167,261
5. 8.8 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) 51,091
6. 8.8 Casablanca (1942) 89,591
7. 8.8 Schindler's List (1993) 133,006
8. 8.7 Pulp Fiction (1994) 189,831
9. 8.7 Shichinin no samurai (1954) 48,352
10. 8.7 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Full Top 250:
www.imdb.com/chart/top

Titanic isn't even in the top 250...

And, my neighbor Totoro is pretty good, but it's oriented more towards children. Just PLEASE watch the japanese version the english dubb is horrible (good old disney for you.) I recommend more of the other miyazaki's above that one.

Some of my favorites:
Spirited Away
Naussica
Princess Mononoke
Castle in the Sky
Howl's Moving Castle

I once again highly recommend the japanese version (w/ subs) they are much better than the dubbs. The dubbs for spirited away and monoke are quiet horrible. The stories are changed, simplified, and adult themes and motives are removed. I guess disney felt that the movies were too complex and dumbed them up a bit (for stupid american kids?)

[katsy]

yeah Matt has a good point. "Tonari no Totoro" (My Neighbor Totoro) is a good film, but it is more focused on child's entertainment. I also would recommend others over Tonari no Totoro. As far as subtitles go, it's most deffinetly better then the english version! Though I found listening to the Japanese and reading the subtitles, they weren't always matching to what the character was saying. I do wish they would be a little more literal in some parts with the translation.... it would still make sense either way

and it's true what Matt said about themes being removed! (Sorry if I'm going off on a rant but we discussed this in class today and I find it really interesting...) That's what differs Japanese animation so much from american animation. The themes and concepts in anime are so much deeper then those in america. More purplexing plots and emotions are found turning anime and manga into a respectable and researched art form. But in american animation most of the stories are quite simple and the problem only lasts for one episode and just teach you basic responsibility skills. That's probably why when translating and dubbing it here in america, a lot of the important themes are lost because our own animation isn't nearly as complex. There's a whole philosophy on it, but really, Japanese animation goes way beyond what you expect from "cartoons" and delves into more mature and thought provoking material, in turn making it appeal to a wider range of audiences. Yeah... I'll stop now lol

[Kämpfer]

Yeah I was trying to make the point that Titanic is still like the top grossing movie of all time.... As this was the measure we were originally talking about was it not?

Anyway, have you looked at box office totals??? This just proves Americans have no taste. Nothing against these movies, but Star Wars and LOTR (and maybe ET) are the only ones close to deserving this kind of attention. I guess it just proves the real money is in the sequel, even if it's below par.

All-Time US Box Office:
1. Titanic (1997) $600,779,824
2. Star Wars (1977) $460,935,665
3. Shrek 2 (2004) $436,471,036
4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $434,949,459
5. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $431,065,444
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) $423,032,628
7. Spider-Man (2002) $403,706,375
8. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) $380,262,555
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $377,019,252
10. Spider-Man 2 (2004) $373,377,893

Full All-Time US Box Office

Now that I'm done with my rant, back to anime...

[euclidean©]

ya, i didn't mean it was top rated....just it was top...as in sales...which is gay...

and yes, the movie I was referring to is a VHS w/english subs....but idk...im still a kid at heart...so i liked it lol.

[Kämpfer]

So is everyone ready for new Studio Ghibli? "Tales from Earthsea reached No.1 at the Japanese Box Office on its opening week with a gross of over 900 million yen, or approximately 7.7 million USD,[6] pushing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest to second place and became the number one movie in the country for five weeks,[7] until it was pushed out of the top spot when X-Men: The Last Stand was released.[8] This number is a large opening gross by Japanese moviegoing standards due to Japan having some of the highest admission prices in the world, which makes people shy away from theater trips. Toho (the Japanese distributor) is hoping this film makes 10 billion yen, trying to put it up as one of the highest grossing at the Japanese box office."

www.ghibli.jp/25trailer/

Two of my favorites finally brought together... I hold Earthsea in close esteem to Middle-earth.... Ged is one of my favorite characters and I'm glad that the movie doesn't exactly follow the book. I look to anime for artistic freedom especially when using a Western source.