Halfway through the movie, the dog got up, and curled back up with her back to the tv, presumably in disgust.
When it ended, I said to Kate, “Well, that was anvilicious…”
“Seriously,” said the dog. “All that peace and love stuff was a bunch of crap.”
“It was a mite heavy-handed,” I said.
“Harmony with nature, my ass,” said the dog. “Let me outside. I’m going to stalk and kill something small and fuzzy.”
And you know, I kind of agree with her.
(Copied from a comment at Kate’s LiveJournal. What a howling Mary Sue that was. The animation is pretty, but Jesus, the story is ham-handed…)
Ok, you commit a grevious, grevious error picking on anything Miyazaki. For this, I have to kill you.
Heretic. Blasphemer.
I agree with you about Nausicaa. My three least favorite Miyazakis are : Nausicaa, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Spirited Away (I hate what happens to the parents. My son loves it though.)
My favorites are Porco Rosso (by far) and Castle in the Sky.
And, for the younger set, Panda Go Panda and My Neighbor Totoro.
Way to heavy-handed for my tastes, but some people are dense and need to be beat over the head with whatever you are trying to convince them of.
You have to admit that the scene with the little fox-thing in the beginning of the movie was adorable. It even made me go “aww.” It made the rest of the film worth it.
Way to heavy-handed for my tastes, but some people are dense and need to be beat over the head with whatever you are trying to convince them of.
You have to admit that the scene with the little fox-thing in the beginning of the movie was adorable. It even made me go “aww.” It made the rest of the film worth it.
Have you liked other Miyazaki movies, Chad? I love Howl’s moving castle and Spirited Away. I have to admit that I found Princess Monoke a little heavy handed (if I’m remembering it correctly).
Early to Bed, I’ll have to watch Porco Rosso. I can’t remember what I thought of Castle in the Sky. I’m probably conflating it with Howl’s Moving Castle. I’ll have to re-watch them.
“Castle in the sky” was released as Laputa.
I would also like to point out, if you bought your Miyazaki DVDs in the US then you are buying the Disney distribution of them (Disney bought all Miyazaki rights outside the orient) — which means you have truly, truly sucky translations, which lose a lot of both political message, and nuance and subtlety. I hate what they’ve done, frankly. Disney handles subtlety about as well as Donald Trump handles good taste.
What you need to do is get a region-free DVD player (or hack your own) and buy the dubbed Studio Ghibli films cheap out of Hong Kong. Your movies will not be massacred, that way.
NotVotW is Early Miyazaki. Like many early “message” movies it is heavy handed (Christ allusions, prophecy) and one-sided (Only the chosen people have a clue about how to do things). But you get 1) squirrel thingy 2) god-soldiers 3) many beautiful flight scenes.
By the time of Heisei Tanuki Wars: Pom Poko (The undeveloped countryside is valuable also), Princess Mononoke (It’s possible to achieve economic growth without laying waste to the natural world), or “Spirited Away” (Don’t dump into local streams), Studio Ghibli’s “message” doesn’t cause your teeth to grind so much.
All translations do violence to the source materials. But Disney was under contract to not alter or remove any frame of the Ghibli films, so under MPAA guidelines they were pretty much forced to refer to part of tanuki anatomy as “pouches.” Shallow trick that it was, it worked.
Disney may not have been allowed to cut frames, but they cut the final voiceover in Porco Rosso, and failed to include the anti-fascism discussion in the middle entirely. And in Pom Poko, yeah, remind me — how did they handle the line which is “In reality, you are sitting on my testicles!”…?
Even without cutting frames, it is entirely possible to do a hatchet job on translation. Get the subbed Hong Kong versions, I tell you. They are better, and preserve much more flavor.
Nausicaa isn’t exactly Miyazaki’s best work…
rpenner: I expected Tanuki Pom Poko to never be released in America because of the testicles. Instead, it was released as a G-rated film that I could buy in the Zellers of a small canadian town. If calling them “Raccoon Pouches” is the fig leaf that Disney had to use to allow this to happen, I’m perfectly fine wiht it. 😀
I had originally seen Nausicaa as a kid, when it was released as “Warriors of the Wind”. 30 minutes of plot was cut from the movie, the ecological message almost completely removed, Nausicaa was renamed “Zaundra” and sounded like Rockey the Flying Squirrel. Oh and if you can tell me what the cover had to do with the actual film, I’d love to hear it.
Because of this, I’m probably not qualified to judge it. It’s still one of my all-time favorite films, although it might be heavily clouded by nostalgia, for being the first cartoon I ever saw that was aimed for adults, rather than children.
Surely Miyazaki should be watched with subtitles!
I’m with #1. 😉
Actually, since you gave Nausicaa a bad review, I’ll just recommend Grave of the Fireflies. Take that!
Somehow I am not surprised. I did not like that movie at all, and did not watch enough of it to see the part you were complaining about. Apropos the comment from #7, its only interesting features were its sci-fi characters. And as #12 said, if you really want a blunt message, watch Grave of the Fireflies. The US Army Air Force plane at the start ….
I’ll have to watch Porco Rosso again. I usually only watch the dubbed version once, preferring to hear it in the original (with original sound track in some cases) and read the titles. I thought the ant-fascist point was made, so maybe it was in the subtitles. (You have to watch the translation titles, not the hearing impaired ones that duplicate the dubbed dialog.) I’d love to hear some detail (frame info?) on mis translations.
And younger set my eye: I love Totoro waiting for the CatBus.
From Porco Rosso — I don’t remember exactly what they did with the theatre scene in the dubbed version, but a reasonable translation of the original would be:
——————————-
[at the theatre]
Porco Rosso
You’re a major, eh? You’ve come up in the world, Fierrali.
Fierrali
You fool. Why did you come back?
Porco Rosso
I make it a rule to go wherever I want to.
Fierrali
The authorities aren’t going to let you go this time.
Did somebody tail you?
Porco Rosso
I gave them the slip.
Fierrali
A warrant for your arrest is being issued for refusal to cooperate with the state, illegal coming and going, decadent thoughts, being a lazy pig, and display of indecent materials…
Porco Rosso
Ha ha ha ha
Fierrali
You idiot, this is no time to laugh. They’re threatening to
confiscate your fighter.
Porco Rosso
This is a terrible film.
Fierrali
Marco, come back to the Air Force. We’ll use our influence to work something out for you.
Porco Rosso
I’d rather be a pig than a fascist.
Fierrali
The age of dare-devil aviators is over. Now we can only fly in the service of worthless causes like “country” or “nation”.
Porco Rosso
I only fly for myself.
Fierrali
When it comes down to it, a pig is just a pig.
Porco Rosso
Thanks for your advice, Fierrali. Give my regards to the others.
Fierrali
I think it’s a good film. Be careful, they’re not going to bother with trying a pig.
Porco Rosso
Yeah.
Fierrali
Goodbye, comrade.
——————-
There’s a bit earlier on, I think where Porco Rosso first meets Fio, where he tells her “you were being followed by the fascist secret police…”. In the dubbed version I think he says only “we’re being followed by the police”. I seem to recall them really watering down the political side. And I seem to recall that the dubbed version, for reasons best known only to themselves, cut the final spoken line of the movie:
“And as for how Gina’s bet turned out, that’s our secret.”
–if I’m wrong and they left that in the version you have, let me know, because I would be thrilled to hear that.
FWIW, Nausicaa isn’t the best film Miyazaki ever did, but it is one of the first, and he was trying to condense the 7-volume manga which he took 13 years to write. The manga is immensely better.
And Nausicaa still manages to be better than 95% of the anime out there, frankly.
And yet, even the Disney translation of Nausicaa is 100x better than the true butcher job released in the early 80s with the bizarre-ass retitling “Warriors of the Wind.”
I’ll also pitch in to agree with the comment that the manga it’s an adaptation of is miles better — more subtle, more nuanced and far more expansive in scope.
Hmm, everyone’s covered everything I was going to say – Miyazaki’s not for everyone, translation, cultural era, manga vs. anime, blah blah. I think it’s great that you watched it, and if you treat it as cinema/artsy film rather than a mainstream movie or cartoon, it fits expectations better. I’m an anime fan, but I have to be in a certain mood to watch Miyazaki – usually an “I want to enjoy the beautiful artwork and maudlin story” mood.
One thing that is remarkable about most of Miyazaki’s work is that he was one of the first people to use strong female heroines who were not burdened by sexuality in his productions. Given that these were released in Japan makes that even more remarkable.
Another recommendation for Porco Rosso or Howl’s Moving Castle for a different feel.
Extremely late to the party here because I’ve been out of town but I had to chime in.
I agree that Nausicaa is a bit over the top at times, but, well, it’s still the only film I’ve ever watched that made me cry at the end, so it holds a special place in my heart.