Back to Back Neil Gaiman : Stardust and Coraline

I am not sure when was the first time I heard Gaiman’s name but I do remember the first review I read, it was Graveyard Book in both TBM’s blog (50 Years Project) and Caroline’s blog (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat). They were having a readalong. I really enjoyed their review/discussion but still at that point even though I am curious but NOT curious enough.

And then I was quite surprise to find his name as the writer of The Doctor’s Wife, Doctor Who’s Series 6 episode 4. His episode was really good. I like the connection he made between The Doctor and his TARDIS. Upon seeing that, I became more curious on Neil Gaiman…or as Alice would say curiouser and curiouser. Neil Gaiman also writes last week’s episode of Doctor Who called Nightmare in Silver (Haven’t seen it yet)

Then I asked someone who also loves Stephen King as much as I am whether he has ever read Gaiman’s book and he told me that Gaiman is one of his favorite authors.

So…I finally bought American Gods (will read it after I finished my Stephen King’s book) and found 2 movies based on his books…in short, 1 one them blew my mind while the other was just a fun watch.

Laputa – the Castle In The Sky

I wish I can see this anime in big screen.

This is my second time watching Laputa and it is still as fun as the first time I saw it. An anime with such an amazing art follows with a joyful story. Laputa gives us more than just an exciting story, it also gives beautiful treat to our eyes. There are scenes that I find so beautiful that I tend to forget that it is just an animation movie, in my eyes it looks like a piece of art in some gallery. The beautiful scenery in most Ghibli’s anime is the reason why I keep on praising over Studio Ghibli’s animation. Even their worst anime, Gedo Senki, still has beautiful scenery.

The story is simple but enjoyable. It starts with an attack by Dola (Kotae Hatsui), a pirate family, over a government zeppelin/airplane. Their main objective is to seize a green pendant that belongs to a girl named Sheeta (Keiko Yokozuna). While trying to avoid the pirates, Sheeta accidentally falls from the plane but something magical prevents her from free-falling, she is floating slowly to the ground. Upon seeing that, Dola becomes more eager to get the green pendant.

ゲド 戦記 (Tales From The Earthsea)

This is the worst Ghibli’s animation I have ever seen!!

I feel sorry saying that sentence to open my review on my number one animation studio, but that is my honest opinion. I’ve seen lots of animation from Studio Ghibli and I always love their works … I love it more than all those Hollywood animation studio combined into one … but Gedo Senki (ゲド 戦記) or Tales From The Earthsea is clearly the worst animation from Ghibli. I’m not going to say that it is the worst animation ever, because it still has good things about it.

The artwork is still amazing. I love the color, especially on the dragon. Simply said, the artwork is still as great as always.

The flaw comes from the story. It was boring!! I almost turned it off before it was over, but I kept it going out of curiosity. I wanted to know how it ends, maybe the ending will make it up. There are too many holes in the movie, it isn’t engaging enough.

Gake No Ue No Ponyo

I’ve just bought 3 DVD from Studio Ghibli and planning to review them all one by one. However, next month I will not review the one that I’ve just bought, I will review Hotaru no Hoka because it’s related to Indonesian Independence day.

I already expressed that I love Studio Ghibli’s animation far more than Disney, even Pixar. I still adore the art of drawing rather than digital animation. I find drawing animation (I don’t really know how do people call it, but I hope you do understand what I mean by drawing animation) has more heart than digital animation.

 

I’m going to write a bit about Gake no Ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ), or Ponyo on the cliff. The story is lighter than Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) and the art is also different. Spirited Away is full of sophisticated art while Ponyo is rather childish. Ponyo is inspired by Little Mermaid, Hayao Miyazaki rewrites the story into something with more Japanese Taste poured into it. The animation is so colorful and I love how they play with those colors.

The story is opened by the appearance of a man in stripped suit trying to make the ocean more colorful. He carried small creatures that looked like golden fish, but they were not golden fish at all, they have face that look like human. One of the oldest came out of the ship and took a ride on a jelly fish. She was carried far from home into a dirty harbor. A little boy named Sousuke rescued the fish and took it home. He named it Ponyo. Ponyo understood human’s language, Ponyo would squirt water from its mouth whenever it heard someone talking bad thing about Ponyo. Sousuke soon found out that Ponyo could speak, Ponyo’s first sentence was ‘Ponyo Sousuke Suki’ (Ponyo likes Sousuke). But the man in the stripped suit took Ponyo away from Sousuke.

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi

Do you know Ghibli Studio?? If you don’t, all I can say to you is ‘What a Shame’ …you’ve just missed the best animation maker in the world.

Some people said that Ghibli is Japan’s Disney…but for me, Ghibli is far better than Disney because of its wide imagination. The brain behind so many amazing stories in Ghibli is Hayao Miyazaki. I have seen half of Ghibli’s animation but I only own 3 movies. I’ll write all 3 of them in my blog.

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi is called Spirited Away in English, its actual meaning is Sen and Chihiro whom are hidden by the Gods. This is my most favorite of all Ghibli’s animations. This animation won an Academy Award for Best Animation…no surprise there!!! The graphic was awesome and the story is amazing, it was so out of this world…one hell of a great imagination. Every scene and every character are so worth to be watched. This animation is the reason I like all Ghibli’s Animations.

Taking a snapshot for this movie is so hard because everything looks great, everything worth being captured. If you are a person who hate spoiler…don’t read the whole story I have written below!! It is full of spoiler.

The story is about the adventure of a 10years old girl named Chihiro. Chihiro’s family had to move to a new town, but on their way to their new home they found a tunnel that lead to a small town. Her Otosan and Okasan being so hungry ate the food on that town. They thought it was just like regular traditional food counter, they’ll eat 1st then they’ll play…but this town is not a normal town. It is too quite to be a normal town…no one was there.

But on the evening…things started showing up…things inhuman. Chihiro was told to get away from there, when she came to call her parents, they had turned into pigs…the curse for human who ate customers food. Chihiro who didn’t eat anything started to fade away. A boy named Haku helped her out. Haku told her to seek for Yubaba and asked for a job or she’ll never survive in that spirit world.

Chihiro came to Kamaji, an old man who controled the herbal with helps from small hairy black creatures he used to call Chibidome. Kamaji sent Chihiro to meet Yubaba with the help of Rin, one of the workers. Yubaba herself was an old powerful witch that owned a public traditional bath. Yubaba had taken an oath to take anyone who seek for job. Chihiro who kept saying ‘koko ni hataraite kudasai’ finally got the Job. She signed the contract that will bind her life forever.

Yubaba changed Chihiro’s named into Sen (taken from her 1st kanji character Chi-hiro Chi can be read as sen). Haku told Chihiro not to forget her real name coz that is how Yubaba ruled people, by stealing their name. On her 1st day she met a mysterious no face black shadow, he was actually a nice person and drawn to Chihiro’s politeness. He helped Chihiro on her 1st assignment cleaning a tub.

On that same day, a customer came…a very stinky customer. Chihiro was given the task to help him clean…but to everyone surprise he was not a Stinky God, he was another God that got stuck with something bad. Chihiro pulled free all the trash inside him and show his real identity, he is the famous River God, he was dirty with trash people thrown into the river. That God left something for Chihiro.

On the next morning the mysterious no face black shadow ate one of the frog worker and gave gold to attract everyone including Chihiro. But Chihiro was too preoccupied with Haku. She saw Haku being attack by small paper bird. Chihiro followed Haku to Yubaba’s room where she finally met Yubaba’s big baby called Bo. On Yubaba’s room, she tried to protect Haku from Zeniba‘s image, yubaba’s twin sister. Zeniba turn Bo into a fat mouse and Yubaba’s bird into a tiny bird and turn the 3 head man into Bo to fool yubaba. The image was gone when Haku smashed the paper bird.

Chihiro brought Haku to Kamaji’s place and saved him by giving half of the thing that The River God had given her. She decided to go see Zeniba to give back the seal that had been stolen by Haku. On her way out she met no-face, he had turned bad inside that public bath. Chihiro gave the other half of the thing that the River God had given to her and turn no-face into the nice spirit she knew before. He followed Chihiro to Zeniba’s place.

Zeniba turned out to be a lot nicer than Yubaba. In Yubaba’s place, Yubaba finally realized that her baby was missing. Haku promised to get Bo back as long as Yubaba let Chihiro’s parents back. Haku picked up Chihiro on Zeniba’s place but no-face decided to stay with Zeniba. On their way back Chihiro remembered her childhood and she had met Haku before, she also remembered Haku’s real name, it was Kohaku.

Yubaba tried to trick Chihiro so that she cannot get away from her contract, but she gave the right answer n got her parent back.

The moral of this movie is kindness, trust and love. I have seen this movie for…hmm I lost count of how many times I had watched it…I think around 10 times and yet I never get tired of it. I really love this animation movie.

My Rating is

My other reviews on Studio Ghibli’s amazing animations:

• Gake No Ue No Ponyo (Ponyo on The Cliff)
• Gedo Senki (Tales From The Earthsea)
• Tenku No Shiro Ryaputa (Laputa – Castle in The Sky)