Hayao Miyazaki

[Sugar]

Well, now that I'm laid up at home for a while after having minor surgery on my foot (I had half a needle embedded in it, WEAR YOUR SLIPPERS, FOLKS!)
I finally decided to start this thread...

This is my family's latest addiction. For those of you who don't know who Miyazaki is, he's a Japanese animator, considered by some to be the Japanese Disney, although that's not a completly accurate comparison. And I really wouldn't consider this stuff to be Anime either. He's truly in a class all his own.

Disney bought the rights to most or all of his films and has been re-releasing them with new American dubs with well-known American actors, under the strict condition that the films not be altered.

The animation is beautiful. Amazing! Most of the themes are environmental, with nature not being so willing to let man walk all over it! Also lots of magic, since Shinto gods and spirits play heavily in a lot of these. His latest, Howl's Moving Castle, is more of a romance/adventure sort of thing.

I watch all the films with my five-year old daughter, and she has taken to "playing Princess Mononoke" or "playing Spirited Away" in the yard with my husband, which is really funny. I keep wondering if she's going to have a hard time in Kindergarten when she want to do the same and she tells the boy that he's going to play "A****aka"!

Anyway, for those of you who know nothing about these films, TRY THEM! Especially if you have kids. These are our favorites:

Spirited Away (#1 grossing film of all time in Japan)

Princess Mononoke (More violent and with disturbing imagry than the others, but what a FABULOUS movie! Watch it first before the kids do just so you know what you're getting into. If you don't have kids, JUST WATCH IT!)

My Neighbor Totoro (Very kid friendly. Family moves to the country, only to find out that there are fuzzy spirits living in the nearby forest. LOVE the cat bus!)

Howl's Moving Castle (I had to watch it a couple times to get my head around the story, but it's very sweet. And the castle animation is AMAZING!

Anyone else love this guy?