This holiday season, beginning on December 24 and running until January 10, the TIFF Bell Lightbox kicks off what’s becoming something of a seasonal institution for them. Spirited Away: The Films of Studio Ghibli returns with what is sure to be massive amounts of excited families and patrons as TIFF pays respect towards one of the most venerable animation studios in history.
It keeps coming back because audiences, especially those with families, are getting exposed to the venerable Japanese studio’s output more and more every year. Many of their films – My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke (all of which are screening multiple times) – have already become iconic despite never garnering huge North American audiences until just around the turn of the century. They’ve been critically celebrated around the world for quite some time, but the films of Studio Ghibli have some ways to go before reaching Disney-levels of household name recognition in North America, which isn’t the fault of the films themselves or Ghibli’s actual partnership with Disney keeping them down, and more to do with many Americans having still troubling aversions to subtitles on their films.
So with older high profile films and more recently released Ghibli efforts getting increased recognition and becoming more beloved by general audiences beyond the arthouse with each passing year, let’s go back and take a look at five films from Ghibli’s past that often go overlooked and are worth seeking out during this year’s retrospective. Also, be sure to buy your tickets in advance. Many of these screenings will fill up, so check out the full line up and schedule over at the TIFF website and plan accordingly.
The Cat Returns
An act of kindness on the part of a shy, teenage schoolgirl thrusts her into the enigmatic, wondrous, and sometimes dangerous world of the Cat Kingdom in Hiroyuki Morita’s adventurous 2002 riff on Alice in Wonderland. A spiritual sequel of sorts to the late Kondô Yoshifumi’s more dramatically minded 1995 effort Whisper of the Heart (which screens on December 29 [subtitled] and January 3 [dubbed] and features some of the same characters), The Cat Returns tends to get lost amid the other exceptional films Ghibli was churning out around the same time, but it’s a wonderfully fantastic tale about the perils of figuring out who you are while growing up. Younger kids can enjoy this, but the older kids in the family will find this one resonating with them quite beautifully and subtly.
Screens
Tuesday, December 27 – 1:00 pm – Dubbed
Friday, January 6 – 4:00 pm – Subtitled, and screening with the short Ghiblies: Episode 2
Sunday, January 8 – 3:45 pm – Dubbed
Grave of the Fireflies
Grave of the Fireflies emphatically is not for younger, easily traumatised kids, and it’s also not underrated to anyone who has seen it. Isao Takahata’s 1988 masterpiece about a teenager coming to terms with loss and the fallout of a 1945 World War II bombing raid on Kobe isn’t just the best film that the Studio Ghibli has produced (and one that shockingly few have seen thanks to the tough, unflinching approach to the subject at hand), but it’s also one of the best films about World War II ever made. Of all the Ghibli films to date, this one deserves the biggest audience. People will marvel now in hindsight that this wasn’t showered with every award possible and why they never watched it sooner. The sheer emotional force and visual splendour of this film can’t be put into words without cheapening it, and although it has been made available on home entertainment just recently, nothing could ever compare to catching this one in a theatre. Until everyone I know has seen it, I will continue to say this one is underrated at large.
Screens
Sunday, January 1 – 6:00 pm – Subtitled
Tuesday, January 10 – 6:30 pm – Subtitled
Ocean Waves
A bit of a deep cut when it comes to Studio Ghibli films, Tomomi Mochizuki’s 1993 teenage romantic drama Ocean Waves strikes as a bit of an anomaly among the studio’s output. A somewhat restrained, but still gorgeously artful character study, it’s the tale of a love triangle between two friends on a rural Japanese island who become smitten with the same transfer student from Tokyo. Pitched tonally somewhere between the more serious side of John Hughes and the more playful side of Richard Linklater – while emphatically retaining a sense of Japanese culture that render such comparisons almost null and void – Ocean Waves tends to get overlooked (and it’s only given a single screening during the retrospective) because it’s unlike anything else the studio produced before or since, and that makes it unjustly a bit of a tough sell for those who prefer their Ghibli on the flashy side. But as a film, it’s a quietly stunning and textural experience that few other teen films could ever hope to reproduce.
Screens
Tuesday, January 3 – 4:00 pm – Subtitled
Pom Poko
Most North American audiences – especially those who grew up with Nintendo in the 1980s and 90s – know what a tanuki is (or at least what they’re capable of is Super Mario Bros. 3 is any indicator). These mischievous racoon-like creatures are the main characters in Isao Takahata’s often unremarked upon, slightly naughty, and admittedly overlong 1994 fantasy Pom Poko. These shapeshifting tricksters (who bounce on “magical pouches” that absolutely give off the impression of testicles) are in danger of watching their livelihoods vanish in the name of progress. There’s some great action and silliness here, but what makes Pom Poko special is how it became the template that’s followed by most animation studios when they set out to make an animated feature that tries to convey ecological concerns. If you can get past the length and potentially uncomfortable conversation with the kids about what they may or may not be bouncing on, you’ll notice that the message and warmth behind Pom Poko becomes more and more relevant with each passing year.
Screens
Friday, December 30 – 1:15 pm – Dubbed
Wednesday, January 4 – 4:15 pm – Subtitled
Porco Rosso
The only film on this list to be directed by Ghibli’s chief and biggest name filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, Porco Rosso is a great time at the movies and the most underrated effort from the man who gave the studio its most widely recognized hits. Sure, it’s a metaphor for fighting against fascism set during World War I, but it’s also the tale of a pilot who’s cursed into looking like a pig for the rest of his life doing battle with dogfighting pirates. It’s every bit as awesome as that sounds, and while there’s definitely a message to Porco Rosso, this might be Miyazaki’s most brazenly entertaining film. Also, I never usually advocate for a dubbed version of a film over the subtitled original, but in the English language dub for Porco Rosso, Michael Keaton voices the main character and the way he gets into the character is beyond wonderful. It has the best dub of any of the Ghibli films. Subtitled or dubbed, this one is a solid bet.
Screens
Tuesday, December 27 – 1:00 pm – Dubbed
Friday, December 30 – 3:45 pm – Subtitled
Spirited Away: The Films of Studio Ghibli runs from December 24 to January 10 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. For a full list of films, showtimes, tickets and more information, check out tiff.net.
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3 comments
How is GOTF and Porco Rosso “underrated”? I’d have thought that every fan of Studio Ghibli would hold them in high regard; especially GOTF. If it’s good enough for Roger Ebert to consider it among his favorite wartime movies (not just animated), it should be good enough for everyone else.
Admittedly, the word “underrated” is about as flexible of a term as one can get. This isn’t necessarily a list for fans of Studio Ghibli. More like a list for casual observers who might only know the biggest titles. Outside of people who really know a lot of Studio Ghibli, critics, or hardcore film buffs, most of these films are left out of the conversation. Also, both of the films you specifically cite weren’t as widely available to North American audiences as they are today thanks to the success of films like Totoro, Mononoke, and Spirited Away. Just trying to tell people to seek out films beyond the obvious choices.
Great to see some love for Pom Poko! I’ve been watching all of Ghibli’s movies for the first time in chronological order over the last few months, going in as blind as possible for each one, and Pom Poko currently ranks as my third favorite. I was very surprised to see it wasn’t more highly regarded. It’s easily the studio’s funniest movie and a beautiful story too. The Cat Returns, though, I thought was awful. I thought it lacked any of the sophistication of other Ghibli movies, and the animation is also a pretty major downgrade compared to their other films. But, I’m consistently seeing it ranked among their top 10-15 movies, so maybe I’ll give it another shot.
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