http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... on-lullaby

I can see the people watching this movie falling asleep now....

I note the "most recent" film listed was Howl's Moving Castle. Almost everyone is trying to pretend Tales of Earthsea doesn't exist.

Howl's moving castle were brilliant.

Yes, they don't make Howl's Moving Castles like they used to, anymore.

Yeah its a shame... how they made the animation for the castle were brilliant.. but you'd already know that lol.

And the damn things used to be powered by genuine fire demons. These days they use turbo diesel hybrids. And they have flappy paddle gearboxes. Just not the same....

Mappy wrote:And the damn things used to be powered by genuine fire demons. These days they use turbo diesel hybrids. And they have flappy paddle gearboxes. Just not the same....

Can't forget traction control. >_>

Need to get The Stig to do a lap in one of the castles. >_>

hmm, i did like tales of earthsea...well, animation-wise anyway...^^;;

howl's moving castle was awesome! it's one of my favourite gibli film! of course, i'm also incredibly biased coz it was Christian Bale/Takuya Kimura voicing Howl...

Not to mention Billy Crystal dubbing Calcifer. That is pure gold. Theme-wise it was a bit annoying, a bit character weak but it was one of the ones l liked more by him.

Oh, do remember Mappy. The only reason Hayao is making another one is because Goro (his son) did Tales of Earthsea. And while it wasn't as critically acclaimed, Hayao was stung back into action. He clearly thought it was good enough to have to eclipse. So Earthsea did serve a purpose in the end. To get Hayao rolling again. Nothing like Miyazaki family spite to get the Ghibli engine room going.

If Tales of Earthsea was enough to ignite a jealousy-filled creative spark in Hayao, then I think it is time he permanently retired. More likely he saw how shite it was and realised he's going to have to drill some pointers into junior's head about the animated movie game.

Also: movie based on the third novel in a series, that is also the least likely of the series to be a worthy candidate for moviemaking. Fail.

Well, Hayao wasn't even supposed to be involved with Howl's Moving Castle but he ended up taking over it. I think we've said before he needed an heir but the likely one carked it and now the studio is in a conundrum because they don't have one and Hayao is in a mode of breaking retirment over and over.

Then again, considering Studio Ghibli was created especially for him, maybe it can't continue without him. Sad but possibly true. Then again, considering the crap most studios make...

I am certain that Ghibli have a surplus of directors of talent who are too shitscared of losing their jobs unless they kowtow completely to the whims of their eccentric and unpredictable boss. You can see why a large portion of their talented personnel jumped ship when the studio, Brains Base, was set up in 2001.

And it isn't as if Ghibli are giving others a great chance at directing. They only release a production, on average, once every two years. Apart from Miyazaki's partner in crime, Takahata, there was Mochizuki Tomomi (and he has done practically nothing for Ghibli since.... he had to leave the studio to continue his career), Kondo Yoshifumi (who was being groomed as Miyazaki's successor until his death in 1998 from an aneurism), Morita Hiroyuki (who has done nothing as a director since "The Cat Returns") and, of course, Miyazaki's son. Not exactly a great effort into trying to help Ghibli survive beyond Hayao's eventual demise....

speaking of cat returns, anyone besides me think that the story, while cute, is not very deep? it's too fluffy for me...-_-lll i did like it, but i've only watched it once and that'll probably be it. i can watch totoro or spirited away loads of times and not get sick of it, i've even watched howl's more than 5 times, but cat...nah.

Cat Returns was a project made up of most of Ghibli's junior employees. It was always intended to be a lightweight production between the more heavyweights of Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. It doesn't irritate me the way Howls did, which was Ghibli taking a novel and applying Miyazaki's perosnal belief system to it, thus weighing the film down with annoyingly facile and shallow anti-war messages to it. Most annoying as I believe none of this existed in the novel (and the reason behind, and resolution to, the war makes it look ham-fistedly shoehorned into a film that really didn't require it.... though the explosions looked good on screen). But at least it wasn't 100 minutes of "don't do fascism, it is bad" that was The Boy Who Saw the Wind.