In case you missed all the nattering regarding how this is the film Disney would have made if they knew a damn thing about making anything decent anymore, the film is about a girl who's travelling with her parents to her new house. Along the way they stop at some old temple, and next thing you know they've crossed over to a fantasy land and the parents are turned into pigs and the little girl is working for an old spider shaped bugger who uses lumps of soot as slaves. In case you think that's a bit mad, the whole parent / pig metamorphism and the spider-bloke and the living soot, well, just wait till the three heads appear, and then the dragons, and the big black thing that runs about eating people who didn't even ask to be eaten.
Imagination slaps you across the jaw with every damn scene. The whole thing has a weird, other-worldly beauty about it, and just to remind you of the beauty, they give away five postcards inside the box so as you can frame the shot where the wee girl is looking out over the sea, or the one where she's holding onto the dragon who looks like the thing from Never Ending Story.
So what the hell is it? Is it a whimsical fable about the loss of childhood and the need to move on? Is it all about sexual awakening? (After all, Freud talked about how the spider was a vagina or something, plus you've got the big phallic dragon that the girl is so keen on). Who the hell cares what it is? It's damn well awe-inspiring is what, and that's all anyone needs to know. Just throw it on, sit back and enjoy. And for once, the dubbing is excellent. I mean really, really good. This Miyazaki fella better watch himself, and calm down a little. The Duke has no room for another genius on The List just yet.
So just to prove it was a fluke, and this bloke was obviously some damn hack, I went and bought another of his films, by the name of Princess Mononoke, the English dubbing of which is performed by none other than Minnie Driver and Billy Bob Thornton and various other "names". Bet this'll be nonsense, I was thinking.
Who the hell gave this Mononoke permission to be better than Spirited Away? Who? Somebody, obviously, for these animated shenanigans turned out to be damn works of genius also. If you can imagine an animated version of Kurosawa's Ran, except with wolves and boars fighting humans over ownership of a forest, and with arrows that cut folks heads off and so on, and also a curse and a bit of deicide thrown in for good measure, then you're somewhere near to realising how original and wonderful these escapades turned out to be.
Article comments
1 - BJ
You're not going to be disappointed by Kiki or Totoro either. They're both "smaller" films (fewer characters, more personal) than the world-creating Mononoke and Spririted Away, but not in a bad way. Castle in the Sky is fun.
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Hi BJ. I look forward indeed to checking out the three you mentioned. It was a toss between Castle... and Princess... in HMV to be honest. Totoro seems to be absent from the shelves around here at the minute, so its gonna be Kiki and Castle next. To be honest, i can't wait. I have never been so impressed by an animated film as i was with the two mentioned in the article. And i've seen me some animation, oh yes. Fritz The Cat, Akira, Urotsukidoji - Legend Of The Killer Penis. You can be sure i saw plenty, and these two still blew me away unlike anything else. Thanks for the comment!
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
BJ, i picked up Castle In The Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service a wek or two ago, but haven't got them watched yet. No doubt a review will be forthcoming as soon as the credits roll. Really lookin forward to them.
4 - barry
"Castle in the sky" is great same with
"Valley of the wind"
in my opinon his two best
5 - DJRadiohead
Duke, fantastic review. You have almost convinced me I ought to watch these things. Only I probably won't on account of I have never been a fan of the Japanimation/ Anime/ whatever the fuck one calls these fucking things. I work with a couple of fellas who swear I am a dumbass (I guess that's American for cunt) for not checking these things out. At any rate, I enjoyed your review.
So other than Woodrow Allen and this Hayao dude, who is on The Duke's list?
6 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
DJ, this review is a year old, so it's probably plenty embaressing, but thank you for the kind words, regardless! who else is on the list... i'd never to consider it, and i might actually devise a post of such, but let's see;
the two you mentioned, Martin Scorsese, Sergie Eisenstien, Lucio Fulci, Kevin Smith... there are tonnes, but that's all i can get off the top of the head.
Barry, i must get my hands on Valley Of The Wind one a these days...