Cinema Tuesdays Review

Spirited Away with Studio Ghibli
By Nathan Cone

I must confess that as much as I love watching animated fare, I've never really gotten into anime, that Japanese style of animation that is notable for its characters' huge eyes, small mouths, and a kind of herky-jerky movement. So it was with a mildly curious mind that I sat down to watch two of three new home video releases from Japan's Studio Ghibli, co-founded by the Academy Award-winning director of "Spirited Away," Hayao Miyazaki.

I first looked at "The Cat Returns," a G-rated feature about Haru, a young schoolgirl bored by her ordinary routine. One day she saves the life of a cat by scooping him up from the path of an oncoming car, and lo and behold, cats begin to follow her everywhere. That night, a parade of cats arrives outside her front door to inform her that the cat she saved was none other than the Cat King's son, the Prince, and the King has chosen her to be his son's bride. This scene is quite startling and magical, almost like a cat version of something from "Akira Kurosawa's Dreams."

Haru, wanting to get these cats off her back, enlists the help of the Baron von Gikkengen, himself a dapper cat. From there, she takes an unexpected journey to the Kingdom of Cats. Her only way out, as the Baron tells her, is to believe in herself.

"The Cat Returns" is a wonderful film for kids, and I was won over by the uniqueness of the cat characters. I watched the film with its original Japanese language track and the subtitles turned on, though there is an English language track that kids will appreciate, with the voices of Anne Hathaway ("The Princess Diaries"), Cary Elwes ("The Princess Bride"), and Peter Boyle ("Everybody Loves Raymond"). The DVD includes a lengthy "making of" feature, and a short interview with some of the English language voice actors, who discuss the difficulties of acting for a film that has already been shot and completed in a different tongue.

Hayao Miyazaki's first film under the Studio Ghibli banner was "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind," from 1984. The story takes place a thousand years in the future, after a great war has left most of the land covered with a toxic forest full of spores. Most machinery has been lost, so it comes as a shock to Princess Nausicaä and her people when a fleet of Tolmekian ships lands in their peaceful valley. Kushana (voiced by Uma Thurman on the English-language track) informs the Valley People that she's taking over, and will destroy the toxic forest that is slowly spreading. Meanwhile, the Tolmekian ships have upset the delicate balance between the Valley People and a race of giant insects called ohmu.

Nausicaä, who seems to have a special connection to the ohmu, escapes the Tolmekian invasion, and before the end of the film, she has discovered the secret of the toxic forest, and hatched a plan to stop Kushana from causing further damage to the Earth.

"Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" is an absorbing adventure, but only hints at the environmental themes that run through the film. From what I have read, these themes would be explored more fully in some of Miyazaki's later films. The film is rated PG for good reason. Even I found some of the giant creatures in the film to be kind of scary-looking, and there are many shoot-em-up fight scenes.

Of the three new DVDs in the Miyazaki Collection, "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" includes what seems to be the most interesting documentary, a history of Studio Ghibli that originally aired on Japanese television. The feature details how the Miyazaki began as an animator, and slowly began to develop his own ideas. "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" was in fact the first feature to be released under the Studio Ghibli label. And what does Ghibli mean? Well, the name comes from Miyazaki's fascination with aircraft (see "Porco Rosso" for more of that). Ghibli was apparently the name of an Italian airplane that was in turn named for a word meaning "hot wind." Miyazaki liked the word and chose it for his studio. And though the Italian pronunciation would be "GEE-blee," with a hard "g," Miyazaki read it as "JEE-blee," so the pronunciation, and the name, stuck.

As on "The Cat Returns," the "Nausicaä" DVD also includes an interview with the English-language cast, including Alison Lohman ("Matchstick Men"), Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, and Edward James Olmos. The film is also presented complete in storyboard form, so you can compare the planning of the movie to the final result on screen.

"Porco Rosso" is also included in this wave of Studio Ghibli films. The movie is about a World War I flying ace whose face has been transformed into that of a pig by a mysterious spell. Porco battles a band of sky pirates, and woos the lovely Gina. The DVD features another Studio Ghibli featurette, storyboards, and an interview with the English-language cast.

While the visual smoothness and fluidity of American animated features is lacking, these anime movies more than make up for that in the story department. "The Cat Returns" and "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" have a certain timeless quality to them that will last longer than many of the contemporary jokes and references in many of today's American releases.

2/26/05

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