Movies you've been watching...

[Xaios]

Nausicaa and especially Princess Mononoke are far more mature and darker than any you’ve watched, I’d try those before writing them off. Preferably without the awful English dubs.

For the record, it's the general tone isn't something I had any issue with. My Neighbor Totoro was arguably one of the ones I enjoyed more, despite the meandering plot. It felt like a warm hug in movie form.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Nausicaa and especially Princess Mononoke are far more mature and darker than any you’ve watched, I’d try those before writing them off. Preferably without the awful English dubs.

Will agree with this, but not with the comment about the English dubs. I am always an advocate for watching movies/shows in the original language, but I will watch Studio Ghibli stuff dubbed because they go out of their way to find very talented actors to do the voices. I thought the dubbed voice acting in Princess Mononoke was totally fine, the one performance that stood out and seemed a bit off was ironically from Billy Bob Thornton.

 

[wankerness]

I watch the English versions of most of them but draw the line at Mononoke - Thornton is SO bad and really just destroys all sections of the movie he’s in. I really do t like Gillian Anderson there, either. I guess I appreciate what they were going for vs the Japanese voice but I think she sounds bored.

Nausicaa I think is probably fine in English, I don’t remember.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Howl's english dub is the only one I like personally. All the others are way better in Japanese

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Me and my sister are having weekly watch parties where we're working through Studio Ghibli movies, of which she is intimately familiar with each, whereas I've never watched them. It's fair to say I never gave anime a chance when I was younger as my sister was obsessed with it, so I naturally avoided it like the plague, even after knowing that there was more to it than what she was into at the time (mostly magical girl anime). So, I'm finally giving it a fair shake.

So far we've watched Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and, just last night, Howl's Moving Castle. My feelings on them are... complicated. Like, they're absolutely gorgeous, at times quite funny and very charming in their own right, and have beautiful scores, but something about them just isn't clicking for me. None of the ones I've seen so far has struck me as this transcendent experience that so many people have told me to expect. All the parts are there it seems, but none of them seem to be a whole that's greater than the sum of their parts. The closest thing I can really compare them to is golden age Pixar movies, but the Pixar films really seem to stand better on their own, as they feel significantly more cohesive, although I'll warrant that it could just come down to a difference between cultural styles of storytelling.

I'm wondering if, at this point, I'm just too old to gel with them. Thoughts?

Hayao Miyazaki would probably agree with you.

The guy does have a complicated relationship with his own works. Most of his movies are moments of what he was in that point in time, sometimes deeply personal, but he will most likely deny it. He doesn't like the idea of any of his fans watching his movies more than once (if not yearly, ever), but also extremely workaholic and has spent a lot of time labouring over even smallest of details.

He does love his boobs though.

I'd also recommend Grave Of The Fireflies. While not Miyazaki's it's still Studio Ghibli.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I really do t like Gillian Anderson there, either

How dare you

 

[wankerness]

How dare you

I’ve rewatched the first 9 seasons of the x files at least four times, I’m a huge Gillian Anderson fan, but I just don’t like her there compared to the Japanese version!

 

[ArtDecade]

I’ve rewatched the first 9 seasons of the x files at least four times

Please donate your brain to medical research after you pass on.

 

[nightsprinter]

I'm not gonna front. I watch the X Files every single monday-thursday night when there isn't a sports game on that I'm interested in. Comet channel plays them over and over and it's the perfect background stimuli for paying half-attention. It's one of those shows along with Quantum Leap (the OG) that if it's on, I'll have it rolling.

Just last night I enjoyed the legless Indian man on a cart episode for the thousandth time.