Forum - View topicINTEREST: Former Ghibli Production Staffer Criticizes All Films Since Kiki's Delivery Service
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wolf10
 Posts: 905 |
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See also: One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island.
It's kinda sad, actually, having to compartmentalize my appreciation for Ghibli films with the horror stories that leak out from the people who worked there. |
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Nekelen Tinsley
Posts: 339 |
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Okay while i got to give him credit cause he does make some valid points this stood out to me("they get everyone to throw in ideas." The directors, he said, have too much on their shoulders. "They're overworked – they don't have enough time to come up with new ideas or mature the ones they have.") but he sounds salty as f#ck considering he's calling all the films he didn't work on boring(what you call bias i call hate) and to talk about this 2 decades after the fact its really irrelevant know cause people will still love the movies like Spirited Away,My Neighbors the Yamadas,Ponyo etc.
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blaizevincent
 Posts: 407 |
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Pretty much how I figured things were. I've been highly critical of Studio Ghibli's lack of future proofing when talking with friends.
Studio Ghibli could be where the best directors and talents go to work on a film or two. It's sad to me that Miyazaki and co didn't see Studio Ghibli as an opportunity to help nurture talent and also have guest directors come in and do film collaborations with Ghibli. Wouldn't be great to have talents like Shinkai come in and work on a film in that Studio? For all the benefits Studio Ghibli have had on the Anime industry they could have still done abit more to make sure it prospers going forward I feel. I don't agree that Ghibli films have become boring though, Princess Mononoke is my favourite Anime film and I've enjoyed all Ghibli films since Kiki's Delivery Service. Disney outlasted Walt and continued to create brilliant films. I feel if Isao and Hayao had their way Studio Ghibli would die with them, which is really sad to me. |
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OrangeVision
Posts: 87 Location: Finland |
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Delecating and sharing the writing workload works for Pixar type of movie making where the overarching plot is simple and the tone comedic with wide appeal. You can brainstorm gags on top of the planned structure and you're golden. It works great for Pixar, but when you're concentrating on worldbuilding and specific narrative, there really has to be someone with sense of direction holding all the threads.
Also, Princess Mononoke was Miyazaki's passion project. I find it hard to swallow that his ideas regarding the movie were not matured at that point (and I personally find it his most complete work to date). I obviously can't comment on the work environment of Ghibli since there are many mixed statements about it. Since their quality standards are so high and they are pretty much the only anime studio with wide international regard, I'm sure they're running tight shifts at least. |
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icomeanon6
 SubscriberPosts: 114 |
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On a surface level, I can't agree simply because Princess Mononoke is my favorite animated film, due in no small part to how fascinating I find it.
He raises some good points, but there's a flip-side to his argument which is that when you go too far in the other direction you get films that feel more like they were made by a committee than by an individual with a unique perspective. Nothing against Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, and Inside Out, but sometimes I wish that Disney and Pixar films were a little less calculated and a little more personal, 'personal' as in you feel like there's a single author who's speaking to you through the film. |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2093 |
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I really don't see that much of a difference in terms of emotional connection to those films (in fact, I'll definitely say Inside Out spoke to me FAR more than most Ghibli films). The only notable element I would say is that Miyazaki puts his own personal aesops into his films. Which is fine but then after so many films that aesop is getting a little worn out to say the least. Disney and Pixar at least try to diversify the themes and messages. Even Monsters University which may not be liked by many but I would hope they at least acknowledge that the message of that movie is something that took a lot of courage for the creative team to put in since it's a concept that might surprise a lot of kids who spoiler[just naturally assumed you would never have to compromise on your dreams as long as you believed in them, and that assumed that college was automatically the best route for everyone.] I like Ghibli and Miyazaki but they definitely do feel a tad restricted due to how they operate compared to Disney, Pixar, or certain films of Dreamworks. |
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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Yeah, I like Ghibli movies, but I don't laden them with praise like they seem to get. I suppose since the mainstream likes him we felt obligated that we must like them too. As if saying that if we like what the mainstream likes we can legitimize Anime. I felt Ghibli has been dropping in quality for a long time. Glad the criticism can now surface now that Miyakuzazaki has left.
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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I'd say that Spirited Away was the cutoff point for good Miyazaki movies, if only because most fans in the US were treating it as the "chaser" for Mononoke, after the Disney debacle. After that, Hayao just got too grumpy and leftwing, and just wanted to show Neat Magic Stuff Happening without really bothering to explain why. And that's only treating "Ghibli" = "Miyazaki", as Secret World of Arietty showed that some very nice Ghibli-style movies could be made by promoting some of the design/animation directors, rather than saying "The son must continue the father's work!...Maybe it's in the DNA!" (Especially when he clearly couldn't, and it wasn't.) When Walt died, Disney had no idea how to make films from 1967 to 1986, except to follow the lead of the last Walt-involved one, and remake Jungle Book over and over with cute critters and Phil Harris bears, and dig up Walt memos from old unfinished projects. But the generational appeal brought in young animators raised on "good" Disney that reinvented the appeal they remembered by influencing the 90's Renaissance. What we're seeing now with post-Miyazaki Ghibli is what would have happened if Disney decided they should "honor" Walt by shutting down after Jungle Book. |
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*...Ame to Yuki...*
Posts: 24 |
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I agree with most of what he's saying because I can see it manifested in the movies. Having one person be the creative mind behind everything makes the work lack fleshing out. The result is while Howl is a charming piece of work, it had serious storytelling problems that are just glaringly obvious and take away from the full enjoyment of the peice. Mononoke is not so different. While I do believe it to be Miyazaki's strongest productions, it still had that aimless protagonist trope that is present in almost all his work.
Can't bring myself to say the same of Isao Takahata's work though. I'm biased there. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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I remember watching Kiki's Delivery Service. I enjoyed its film, but I didn't find much of it to be totally thrilling, save the air-traveling through bicycle.
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Afezeria
 Posts: 817 Location: Malaysia, Kuantan. |
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Why can't everyone just get along and enjoy those stuff instead just like how they are meant to served as, a piece of entertainment? Nah, there should always be the need to make criticism toward everything in life, and I guess this former Ghibli worker feel proud to say so.
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Levitz9
 Posts: 1022 Location: Puerto Rico |
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As far as Miyazaki's movies go, I can see this being the case. Everyingthing post-Mononoke has felt like Miyazaki is screaming into your ear, "Isn't this whimsical?! Isn't this pretty?! Are you wowed yet?!".
It's hard not to read a little about Miyazaki and not think that he's a little full of himself when you watch his movies. |
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Shirohae
 Posts: 776 |
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He made some good points. the only films that were good were Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and Tales from Earthsea. The rest are just boring to me. Tired of hearing modern war stories. I want them to bring back the fantasy, action feel again..
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Hoo-boy...In spades. 
Diana Wynne-Jones' book of "Howl's Moving Castle" is so Englishly droll and labyrinthine-plotted a parody on European fairytale tropes, fans accused JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book of being "just a plagiarized Wynne-Jones imitation". Until Hayao got his hands on it, saw the character was a wizard who did magic, threw out the plot and said "Look what strange things magic can do!...It all comes from the natural forces of the world! Er, oh, and war is still bad." Which is pretty much exactly what he did when Ghibli got their hands on Ursula LeGuin, and found out Ged was a wizard. Even Spirited Away skirts dangerously on the edge of "Look what magic things ALL the characters can do, especially the two sisters!", but kept itself strongly enough on Chihiro's story arc enough to give some actual plot A-Z for us to emotionally connect to. As for Wind Rises, seems like a lot of the strange dreams where the character meets his European idol were recycled from the test clip Miyazaki had done from Little Nemo. Knew he'd find a use for that someday. |
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Mr. Dent
 Posts: 78 |
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...says the producer of KissxSis.
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