Do you ever have that problem?I really hate it when I think about something, but then decide not to do it. And realize I should have acted when I had the chance.
Turner Classic Movies has been running a special series of films that have something to do with Hayao Miyazaki. For the past couple of weeks I've been catching up on quite a few that I already have on DVD. However, late Thursday night after watching Porco Rosso, I lingered long enough to start watching one I hadn't heard of: Whisper of the Heart. It took less than five minutes into the story to have me totally capitivated. It was way past midnight before I went to bed. When it was over I was weeping happily. Lavie had gone to bed and didn't get to watch it. As is the case of cable, if it airs once, about four hours later it will usually rerun and a quick check found this was so. I deliberated getting up and setting up the VCR to tape it's rebroadcast but was too tired to make the effort. When I checked the Turner Films schedule, I was surprised to find that was it. No more Miyazaki movies. Well, it was an old release so I'd just pop down to my dealer--um--anime store and pick up the DVD.
Well, it isn't out on DVD. Not until March 2007. So I've put in an order at Amazon for us, along with the co-releases of the other Miyazaki releases of Howl's Moving Castle and My Neighbor, Totoro. Fortunately Disney inked a deal a while back to distribute and do voice-dialogs for these films so legit versions are trickling down the release lists.
So how much did this movie touch me? Well, my previous rankings went like this: Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, Totoro, and then his other works on down... Now, Kiki is still the tops in my heart, but Whispers of the Heart just stole 2nd place from Spirited away--easily. Details on these films here if you are interested.
Just how strong is the Miyazaki influence? Well, when I went to order the DVD's from Amazon, I was shocked to find the top 5 anime selling titles based on orders were all Miyazaki films! Wow. That's big. Really big. Especially since these three of the five movies haven't even been released on DVD yet!
Besides the innocence and magical charm that Miyazaki's productions have, I think the thing I like most about these films are the characterizations. We get to see flawed characters as they grow into themselves and their skins. No one is perfect and things don't always work our perfectly. People sometimes get their feelings hurt and sometimes bad things happen and aren't fixed. Life is like that.
In other news, we've been Jonesing on Disney Channel's production of "High School Musical" I wish I was about 10 years younger and didn't embarrass Alvis trying to copy the hip-hop dancin' moves. She squeals with fright, but the music and coreography is infectious! We haven't had this much fun with a television show since we got Grease on DVD. It is really fun. Catch it if you get the chance.
I also watched Kung Fu Hustle on DVD last night on the 19" LCD screen. Awesome. I was rolling in the den with laughter. It has great special effects, great kung-fu moves, an original storyline and non-traditional heros, finally the ending left me weepy.
I've got Hero on tap along with the third volume of Ah! My Goddess (TV) just out on DVD to work through. And I have to finish up with my Noir thinpack anime set.
UPDATE: Some of the more astute anime lovers out there may have noticed that I said we were planning on watching the third volume of AMG (TV) that weekend and wondered...The DVD release date for this isn't until 1-31-06. What gives? Well, when we were out that Saturday (the 21'st) looking at our local big-box electronics store, Alvis came running over with that volume 3 release. I hadn't been looking for it, expecting it out at the end of the month, but figured I just got confused, so we bought it. Turns out the clerks were stocking the shelves early and didn't catch the "official" release date so we picked it up about 10 day's before its release date. Cool. Now I'm hoping they do that with the March Miyazaki releases as well!
So many fun things...so little time....
And meanwhile, the Son-of-Godzilla toddler we are watching this weekend has successfully wrecked all of Alvis's HotWheels and is now slumbering in front of the TV with "Snoopy Come Home" playing.
Maybe things aren't as bad as they seem....
Steering clear of the clouds,
--Claus
Turner Classic Movies has been running a special series of films that have something to do with Hayao Miyazaki. For the past couple of weeks I've been catching up on quite a few that I already have on DVD. However, late Thursday night after watching Porco Rosso, I lingered long enough to start watching one I hadn't heard of: Whisper of the Heart. It took less than five minutes into the story to have me totally capitivated. It was way past midnight before I went to bed. When it was over I was weeping happily. Lavie had gone to bed and didn't get to watch it. As is the case of cable, if it airs once, about four hours later it will usually rerun and a quick check found this was so. I deliberated getting up and setting up the VCR to tape it's rebroadcast but was too tired to make the effort. When I checked the Turner Films schedule, I was surprised to find that was it. No more Miyazaki movies. Well, it was an old release so I'd just pop down to my dealer--um--anime store and pick up the DVD.
Well, it isn't out on DVD. Not until March 2007. So I've put in an order at Amazon for us, along with the co-releases of the other Miyazaki releases of Howl's Moving Castle and My Neighbor, Totoro. Fortunately Disney inked a deal a while back to distribute and do voice-dialogs for these films so legit versions are trickling down the release lists.
So how much did this movie touch me? Well, my previous rankings went like this: Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, Totoro, and then his other works on down... Now, Kiki is still the tops in my heart, but Whispers of the Heart just stole 2nd place from Spirited away--easily. Details on these films here if you are interested.
Just how strong is the Miyazaki influence? Well, when I went to order the DVD's from Amazon, I was shocked to find the top 5 anime selling titles based on orders were all Miyazaki films! Wow. That's big. Really big. Especially since these three of the five movies haven't even been released on DVD yet!
Besides the innocence and magical charm that Miyazaki's productions have, I think the thing I like most about these films are the characterizations. We get to see flawed characters as they grow into themselves and their skins. No one is perfect and things don't always work our perfectly. People sometimes get their feelings hurt and sometimes bad things happen and aren't fixed. Life is like that.
In other news, we've been Jonesing on Disney Channel's production of "High School Musical" I wish I was about 10 years younger and didn't embarrass Alvis trying to copy the hip-hop dancin' moves. She squeals with fright, but the music and coreography is infectious! We haven't had this much fun with a television show since we got Grease on DVD. It is really fun. Catch it if you get the chance.
I also watched Kung Fu Hustle on DVD last night on the 19" LCD screen. Awesome. I was rolling in the den with laughter. It has great special effects, great kung-fu moves, an original storyline and non-traditional heros, finally the ending left me weepy.
I've got Hero on tap along with the third volume of Ah! My Goddess (TV) just out on DVD to work through. And I have to finish up with my Noir thinpack anime set.
UPDATE: Some of the more astute anime lovers out there may have noticed that I said we were planning on watching the third volume of AMG (TV) that weekend and wondered...The DVD release date for this isn't until 1-31-06. What gives? Well, when we were out that Saturday (the 21'st) looking at our local big-box electronics store, Alvis came running over with that volume 3 release. I hadn't been looking for it, expecting it out at the end of the month, but figured I just got confused, so we bought it. Turns out the clerks were stocking the shelves early and didn't catch the "official" release date so we picked it up about 10 day's before its release date. Cool. Now I'm hoping they do that with the March Miyazaki releases as well!
So many fun things...so little time....
And meanwhile, the Son-of-Godzilla toddler we are watching this weekend has successfully wrecked all of Alvis's HotWheels and is now slumbering in front of the TV with "Snoopy Come Home" playing.
Maybe things aren't as bad as they seem....
Steering clear of the clouds,
--Claus
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