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In light of the new, acclaimed film, The Boy and the Heron, Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al reflect on the Studio Ghibli films that Hayao Miyazaki has directed since the ’80s, including Spirited Away, My Neighbor Tortoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, The Wind Rises, Princess Mononoke, etc.
Does the visionary design make up for the languorous pacing? We talk about the anime style, subtitles vs. dubbed, using this style for children’s vs. adult entertainment, the relation of these films to fairy tales, and more.
There are many lists ranking these films online; here’s one from Collider. Here’s another Collider article detailing the relation of particular films to various fairy tales. Read more about the Ghibli/Disney relationship.
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Edited by Daniel Thabet of The Podcast Doctors.
If you like our podcast, check out the Historical Blindness podcast.
I’m on the opposite side of the dubbed versus subtitled question. There is of course a dumb, illiterate hoi polloi version of disliking subtitles, but am sticking up for the rarely encountered intellectual argument against them.
I acknowledge that you aren’t going to get the same experience as you would if you spoke Japanese and watched it in its original form. But that’s the only way I would not want to see the dubbed version: if I did speak Japanese fluently and could watch a version without subtitles. The subtitles mar the cinematography (or the artwork as the case may be). I even hate when there is a small network logo in the bottom corner of the screen. And you have to take your eyes away from the characters’ faces, or other action that is going on, to read stuff at the bottom of the screen.
So if it’s a French film, I will watch it subtitled and try to ignore the captions, because I speak French. If it’s animated, I will watch a dubbed version. And if it’s live action in a language I don’t speak, I’m probably going to skip it altogether.