ANIMATION – Top 10 Fantasy Animated Movies

Fantasy is one of my favorite genres. Basically, animation is just full of fantasy. It is pretty much the genre for animation currently, much more so than science fiction.

Today, I am going to give you my top ten fantasy animated movies.

You can either watch the video below or read the transcription.

You will also find trailers for each movie embedded below:

Let’s begin with my top ten.

10. Ponyo

My number ten I don’t own. I don’t have it with me, but I’ll eventually get it.

It’s Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, which is a really cute little feature animated movie about a little fish that falls in love with a little boy.

It’s basically a retelling of The Little Mermaid, but there’s something about it, the pacing and the way it’s done and the beauty of the movie, it’s just really, really, really sweet.

On the other hand, it’s also very, very strange. And, in a lot of ways, you’re trying to figure out what exactly do these characters and things represent, and is the antagonist really the antagonist, and why is he doing what he’s doing?

It’s a very interesting movie. But, overall, the visualization and the way that it’s done and the animation of the characters, there’s something about it that kind of really pulls at you.

So, I really, really enjoyed my number ten, Ponyo.

9. Princess Mononoke

My number nine I do own a copy of. It’s Princess Mononoke.

As far as fantasy goes, this is a rated PG kind of a fantasy movie about a young man, actually, who gets cursed and has to try to find a cure, and goes off to the world to, I guess, die.

Gets shunned by his village because after he beat this demon that came into his village, the demon cursed him by giving him this kind of almost like a demon hand, and it kind of polluted him.

He had to leave his town and find out where the source of this demon, this creature that got possessed with hatred so much so that it physically manifested out of it. He had to find the source of this hatred, and maybe find a cure for his arm there.

Throughout the adventure, he finds everything he needs to find. It’s pretty intense.

It’s a great, great fantasy movie, talking animals and things like that, spirit of the forests, beautiful, beautiful landscapes, very deep themes, very adult matters, and by adult I mean mature not necessarily, you know, pornographic or anything.

I highly recommend watching Princess Mononoke. Beautiful, fantastic movie.

8. Howl’s Moving Castle

My number eight, yet another Miyazaki movie. This time it is Howl’s Moving Castle.

Howl’s Moving Castle is about a, well, a castle that moves around on legs, kind of chicken legs. Very reminiscent of Baba Yaga. And, a young woman who kind of gets caught up in it after she gets cursed.

She has low self-esteem and then gets cursed, she becomes an old lady. And, by becoming an old lady, she discovers who she really is and stops being so concerned about outer appearances  and who people think that she is, and starts growing and maturing as a person.

At the same time, she has to take care of this magical being in this moving castle, who is a wizard of immense power.

So, I highly recommend this movie, Howl’s Moving Castle. And, that is my number eight.

7. Rise of the Guardians

My number seven I don’t actually own the movie, and that is Rise of the Guardians.

As far as fantasy movies go, this is well—the Easter Bunny, Sandman, Santa Claus, Jack Frost, the Boogeyman, the Tooth Fairy, so it’s really fantastic in that vein.

It’s the unique take that they pull off with these characters that is fantastic. I really, really enjoyed the movie.

I liked the story a lot, I liked the story about Jack and how he discovers who he is and what he brings to the world.  I think it’s got a good message in that everybody needs to find their thing, you know?  Sometimes it’s not very easy to do.

So, I really liked the point of the movie. My number seven is Rise of the Guardians.

6. Coraline

Okay, my number six is one of my favorite, I guess I should say, fairy tale movies that has come out recently, and that’s Coraline.

I’ve done my videos just on Coraline because I liked it so much. It is so good. I don’t know what else I can say about it.

The models are great, the story is fantastic, I must admit, also, it’s kind of creepy.

It really does feel like a fairy tale, much more so than a lot of what Disney has came out with since Snow White. Snow White feels like a fairy tale, Pinocchio would feel like a fairy tale, but this, this feels really like a fairy tale to me.

It’s a little bit more dark, but it works, it works.

5. Spirited Away

My number five is on the same lines as Coraline, it’s basically the same. Almost the same story, or the same kind of motif, and that is Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.

Again, it’s about a young girl who goes into a fantasy world, just like in Coraline, and she learns to become a lot more mature, like in Coraline.

These two movies are basically like sister movies. They both star a girl—they both go into a fairy tale land, and they both have to develop and mature based on what occurs within the fairy tale land, dealing with the master of that world and finding ways to outsmart or out-class or outperform or out-think these characters, and dealing with the creatures and the magic within these worlds.

They’re basically neck and neck, I just happen to like Spirited Away just a touch more than Coraline, but Coraline is just a close second.

These two movies are just fantastic. I highly recommend Spirited Away.

4. Beauty and the Beast

My number four, it’s a beautiful movie, what can I say? You’ve probably seen it, Beauty and the Beast.

Classic, it’s very romantic, it still holds up as a really great movie. It’s got great music, it’s a great story, very romantic, and it does have action-adventure elements, it’s got very scary elements in it, it’s very deep and fun and light and dark, and then it’s got like—it’s a little bit of everything.

Very great, fantastic fantasy movie, Beauty and the Beast.

3. Castle in the Sky

My number three is yet another Miyazaki movie. Notice that there’s a little bit of Disney movies and a lot more Miyazaki movies, just because Miyazaki tends to do movies that are more my taste.

This movie is definitely the more to my taste. It’s kind of Indiana Jones with magical rocks.

It’s very fantastic. There is no magic in it per-say— well no, that’s not true. There is a spell that one of the characters does in this movie that does flow from the plot.

This movie is great. I love it. Action-adventure, the main character’s seeking a long lost island. My number three is Island in the Sky.

2. Peter Pan

My number two is Peter Pan.

I’ve had Peter Pan in many of my lists. This is J.N. Barrie’s story. It’s a great, fantasy story about a boy who’s fighting pirates and not growing up, and about these kids who end up being put into Nevernever Land, which is like a fairy island.

It is just exciting, fantastic, incredibly well animated. One of Disney’s best films and something that, you know, you’ve got a great bad guy in Captain Hook.

I highly recommend if you haven’t watched this, watch it again and again. It’s just a great movie. My number two: Peter Pan.

1. Sleeping Beauty

My number one is actually Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty, it’s got dragons in it, it’s got, basically, fairies, dragons. It’s kind of the archetype of fantasy, or at least, a fairy tale.

Beautiful girl, prince in disguise, I really do like the prince in this movie, castle, dragon, fairies, goblins, great, you know? It’s fantastic.

I really, really enjoyed this movie. I like the look, I like the art direction. I love the villain, Maleficent is just great.

My number one is Sleeping Beauty.

What’s Your Verdit

So, what do you think? What’s your favorite fantasy animated movies? I’d like to hear it.

I’ve been getting a lot of people responding to these lists with their lists, and it’s just really interesting.

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ANIMATION – 8 Reasons Why AVENGERS: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HEROES Animated Cartoon is the Funnest, Easiest Way to Learn About the Marvel Universe.

Have you watched all the live action Marvel superhero movies? Has it made you interested in the Marvel Universe? Do you want to get to know it better but don’t want to slog through 60 years of comics?

The animated cartoons is the way to go.  There’s a few animated shows out there for you to try.  If you want to watch one of the shows that comes closest to the actual comic book universe, I recommend: The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

The show is on Netflix streaming and available on DVD.

Here are eight reasons why you should check this show out:

1. It Introduces you to the Avengers

The first season (out of two) does a great job of introducing each of the main characters in the Avengers.  You get a quick synopsis of some of their origins.  These versions are a lot closer to the comic book version than the live action movies.

The Avengers roster in this show includes: Ironman, Captain America, Thor, Hawk Eye, The Wasp, Black Panther, Hulk, and Ant Man. It later goes on to include other characters like Miss Marvel and The Vision, among others characters, which I’ll talk about in the “New Avengers” section below.

2. It Introduces you to the Hulk Universe Characters

Most of the Marvel characters have mini universes within the macro Marvel universe.  The Hulk is no exception.

There are episodes in this animated series that highlight Hulk’s universe and introduces you to all the Gamma monsters that revolve around the him.

They even go so far as to introduce the Red Hulk, in a cool mysterious way similar to the comic version.

3. It Introduces you to S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.W.O.R.D.

There are other teams in the Marvel Universe besides the Avengers. S.H.I.E.L.D is one of them, S.W.O.R.D. is another.  Want to know what they’re all about.  Watch the show and you’ll find out.

Among the characters that show up on these teams are : Black Widow, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Mockingbird, Falcon and Miss Marvel.

4. It Introduces you to Tons of Marvel Villains Including HYDRA

Once some of the character are introduced and the season is set up, the plot really takes off in episode 6 and 7 called Breakout.  Every locked up super villain in the Marvel Universe brakes out of jail and all hell breaks loose.

It’s a perfect introduction to the many villains of the Marvel Universe.

Although before that happens, the show introduces you to villainous group HYDRA, and other villains like: Red Skull, Loki, The Enchantress, and Kang the Conqueror.

Eventually villains like Doctor Doom,  Ultron, and let’s not forget The Skrulls make an appearance too.

The villains in this show are far too many to count.  Let’s just say you’re in for a treat. There’s plenty of bad guys for our heroes to fight.

5. It Introduces you to Marvel Cosmic Characters

Not only do we get introduced to the earth bound heroes but we get introduced to a few Cosmic Marvel Heroes.

Heroes like Captain Mar-vel, Beta Ray Bill and, yes, The Guardians of the Galaxy.

6. It Introduces you to Some Exotic Marvel Locations

The Marvel characters are not the only things that are interesting in the Marvel Universe.  There are plenty of exotic locations to see there.

This show takes us there.

From Wakanda to the Negative zone, from Asgard to The Savage Land.  The show takes us to all kinds of iconic places in the Marvel Universe.

7. It Introduces you to The New Avengers and Cameos by Other Non-Avenger Marvel Characters

Not every superhero can be an Avenger, but some of the unlikely characters that end up on the team as The New Avengers are: Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Wolverine, War Machine, and The Thing.

And there’s plenty of cameos from other superheroes in this show, such as: The Fantastic Four, The Winter Soldier, and Yellowjacket.  I may have missed some but you get the point.

The only people that really don’t show up on this show are the X-Men.  But I’m sure if the show had got on for another season, they would have showed up.

8. It Introduces you to Variations of Marvel Comic Book Stories

Many of the best story arcs, episodes, and story lines in this show are taken straight off of the comic books.

They’re modified version of the stories in the comics but they definitely have the comics as their jumping off point.

Secret Invasion, Winter Soldier, Red Hulk and New Avengers are a few that come to mind.

As a fan it’s great to see some of these stories come to life, even if it’s in a different way than they were in the comics.

Don’t be Fooled

The art direction of for this show is very simple and cartoony. Much more so than Marvel’s most recent, more naturalistic looking animated cartoons.

Yet, even though the style is more designed and simplified, the writing for this show is for 13 and up.  The stories can get quite intense and serious sometimes.

If you’ve ever seen the Justice League or Justice League Unlimited animated cartoons, you’ll know what I mean.  If you haven’t seen those series, I’ll be writing about them in the near future.

In any case, I highly recommend watching The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated cartoon if you want to get to know the Marvel Universe better.

Speaking of Avengers…

If you want to own a book that has drawings of Spider-Man and Ironman drawn by me you can’t go wrong with a purchase of Angel Cowgirl: The Art of Luis Escobar.  Simply click on the link to go buy it at the amazon store.

If you’d rather get the digital version for free, subscribe to my newsletter. You’ll also get some behind the scenes Simpsons info if you do.

If, on the other hand, you’d like to learn to DRAW the Avengers, you can check out this Adam Hughes DVD (Click on the link) or check out my Drawing Website where I teach you how to draw.  There you can buy my Beginners Drawing Deluxe bundle or get a free drawing book.

Go check those out.

ANIMATION – Top 10 Anime TV Series

Simpsons Quote:

Bart: “I’m still checking Japanese TV. Isn’t it that cartoon that causes seizures?” (Bart watches and has a seizure)
Marge: “Bart, what are you doing?” (Marge is having a seizure)
Lisa: “Hey, what the…” (Lisa is having a seizure)
Homer: (comes in, checks around) “Alright.” (falls on the ground and fakes his seizure)

I like watching all kinds of animated cartoons, and because I grew up watching anime, I have no problem with it, so today, I’m going to be giving you my top ten Japanese animated series.

You can either watch the video or read the transcription below.  There are videos to promo spots and opening credits below if you want to get a taste of what the shows are like:

(Some of the links below are affiliate links. Thanks for your support.)

Intro

I’m El Salvadorean. I grew up in El Savador. They showed Japanese cartoons on TV all the time.

I was exposed to Miyazaki very early on, when I was three because I watched the show called Heidi that he happened to do layouts on, and his good friend Takahata was the one that directed, but I also liked Battle of the Planets, and I also liked watching Mazinger Z, and those were my cartoons growing up.

Then, I watched all American cartoons once we moved here when I was six, but I was always very partial to Japanese cartoons.

I mean, I liked them. They were very influential in my life. I have no prejudice against them. There are a lot of people that have prejudice against them because there is some really, really raunchy, bad stuff in them a lot of the time, and I totally understand because – yeah, but for me, there’s some incredible animated shows that are just absolutely worth watching, so here’s my list.

10. Robotech.

Robotech, Okay, this was my cartoon growing up. My parents didn’t allow me to watch more than an hour of television every day, thirty minutes of which were dedicated to watching Robotech.

Robotech was my soap opera. This cartoon was not the watered-down cartoons of the ’80s like He-Man and Thundercats and G.I. Joe and Transformers.

In this cartoon, people died. This was serious. This was serious drama. Bad stuff happened, there was a war going on, people actually died. It was crazy.

My mom – it’s funny, my mom didn’t let me watch G.I. Joe. Why? Because it was too violent. Really? The hadn’t been watching this sucker, because people actually died in this, while in G.I. Joe, the bullets never hit anybody, right?

The only reason it’s my Number Ten is because it hasn’t aged well, it hasn’t aged well at all. It’s not a very good-looking cartoon once you get halfway through the season.

I mean, it’s just – they really started cranking these suckers out, and you can see the quality just gets worse and worse and worse, but it is absolutely worth watching all the way through in spite of the fact that the artwork starts suffering pretty badly by the end.

9. Future Boy Conan

My Number Nine is something that I didn’t become aware of until about a couple of years into Simpsons, and that is Future Boy Conan.

This is a TV show written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It’s a TV show, so it’s a series, I don’t know, twenty episodes long?

Future Boy Conan is very reminiscent of Island in the Sky. It’s almost got the same characters. Conan is very much like Pazu, and Lana is very much like Sheeta in Island in the Sky, but Conan, he’s like – he’s a really tough, very strong kid, and he’s got the most amazing set of toes.

Yeah, toes.

His toes are his superpower, but he’s like a superkid.

It’s insane, and it’s basically about this boy who just lived on this island with his grandfather, and then, this nation was chasing this little girl, and he has to go save her.

It’s incredible. If you can find a copy of Future Boy Conan, I highly recommend it. I have a Chinese copy of the TV show, subtitled in English.

It’s hard to find. I’m sorry that this is my Number Nine.

The story is incredible. Miyazaki, of course, Miyazaki’s storytelling is dead-on incredible. This is a great, great series. Future Boy Conan.

8. Slayers

My Number Eight is silly, wackiness, crazy, super low-budget Slayers, the TV show.

Slayers is about Lina Inverse, who’s a sorceress. She tends to destroy everything that she touches, and she saves people, but only by basically destroying their town.

It is silly, crazy madness. It is really low-budget. The characters hardly move, things slide in and out, and that’s why it’s funny. Part of the charm of this cartoon is that it’s so poorly animated, and yet the stories and the characters are so funny, they crack me up.

It’s a fantasy world, and it’s kind of like Lord of the Rings, but complete silly, wacky, making fun of fantasy tropes. It’s great.

Slayers, the television show. The television show, not the movies. The movies aren’t as fun, and they’re really, like, more high-quality than the TV show, so I highly recommend the TV show, not necessarily the movies.

7. Bakuman.

I don’t own Bakuman. The only way I’ve seen  Bakuman is online, on these, you know, fansub versions of TV shows.

I actually reviewed the Bakuman manga a few blog articles ago, but Bakuman is basically about two boys who want to become manga artists, and it’s their adventures, and you get to learn all about the manga-creating industry, and it’s awesome.

I highly recommend it, and, if you want to know more about that, then you can go to my article that I wrote.

6.  Fairy Tail.

Fairy Tail is relatively new. It’s on Netflix streaming, so you can watch it there, but it’s very, very, very much like the Slayers, only better animation – for Japanese television, anyway.

It’s very, very silly, and, again, it’s fantasy universe. The characters are completely whacked-out, deranged weirdos, which is exactly why it’s fun.

You know, the characters blow up every town they try to save, and that sort of thing, so it’s very formulaic as far as Japanese standard comedy goes, but I liked it because it’s right up my alley in that kind of crazy, weird humor thing.

I like the Japanese animation humor. This reminded me of Slayers, and it does other things that Slayers doesn’t do.  It’s really a lot of fun, so I highly recommend my Number Six, Fairy Tail.

5. Fullmetal Alchemist

My Number Five – my Number Five, I also don’t own, it’s also on Netflix streaming, is Fullmetal Alchemist.

Fullmetal Alchemist – high-octane adventure about a boy who screwed up his alchemical thing trying to bring his mom back to life, ended up ruining his brother’s life by trapping him in a suit of armor because his body got destroyed.

He also lost his arm, so he has this metal arm – and their quest for this Philosopher’s Stone so that the boy can give his younger brother’s body back.

It’s exciting. It’s very cool. It’s a fantasy world, and it’s very dramatic, and it’s a lot of fun. I highly recommend watching this show. It is Fullmetal Alchemist.

4. Naruto.

Yes, it’s Naruto. Why? Because it’s got great fighting.

It’s the same kind of show as things like Dragon Ball Z. It follows the same kind of tradition as that and One Piece and that sort of thing, only the reason why Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and all this other stuff is not even in my list is because I just don’t like them.

I understand them but they didn’t do anything for me. Naruto, for some reason, did, and it’s very formulaic, it’s a very Shounen Jump formula.

You’ve got the spunky protagonist who’s the, “I’m going to do it! I’m going to be the best!: archetype.

Then you’ve got all the rivals who also want to be the best, and then everybody ends up fighting, but then they become friends because they fought, and the whole – it’s that same sort of Shounen Jump formula of battle manga genre, but I liked Naruto a lot.

You know what it is? It’s because everybody’s got some kind of, like, variable powers, like they all get their little specialty, and it’s always fun when each one of those guys has a specialty like that, and there’s something about that that is kind of reminiscent of a superhero for me, so maybe it’s just like that whole Justice League superhero, everybody’s-got-a-super-power kind of thing that I kind of liked about it.

And the characters are a lot of fun, too, and the fighting, and the drama.

It’s great, so my Number Four is Naruto.

3.  Mobile Suit Gundam.

Okay, so, this, I’m going to make a disclaimer, there’s a ton, a ton of Gundam, all right? I’m talking about the original 1979 Gundam. I’m not talking about Gundam Wing, I’m not talking about Gundam 00, you know, I’m not talking about Gundam Stardust Memories, or whatever. And, by the way, I’ve seen all of that stuff. No, I’m talking about Gundam, the original 1979 – so, this show was exactly the same type of show that Robotech wanted to be. It was highly influential.

You can totally tell where Robotech was just lifting stuff in here verbatim.

Unlike Robotech, the quality of the work stays consistent throughout the entire series. On top of that, the stories get better. So, at first, the stories are, like, kind of kiddy-ish, it seems, and then, little by little, the series gets deeper and more complicated.

Unfortunately, it does have Amuro, who’s a very, very whiny protagonist, but I guess, I mean, for a teenager in the middle of a war, you can kind of excuse the fact that he’s kind of stuck in this position of being this warrior when he was never supposed to be.

It’s got, by far, one of the most awesome endings to a series ever. I mean, it is super great, the way the series ends. Mobile Suit Gundam is my Number Three.

2.  Macross Frontier.

Macross Frontier is a sequel to Robotech.

Okay, so here’s the problem. What we know as Robotech in the United States, in Japan, was called Macross, and Robotech was basically – they took,  three different Japanese cartoons, and then they made it into Robotech as if they all were part of one giant cartoon, but that’s not really what it was.

Macross spun off into its own series, and they did a lot of different things. They had Macross Plus, and then they had Macross 7, and they had Macross II, and there was a lot of different Macross. I think I’ve seen pretty much all of them.

Not all of them were all that very good. Some of them were beautiful, but the stories kind of stunk. Stuff like that.

Macross Frontier is incredible. It takes what was great about Macross and updates it.

It takes – well, basically, it takes the formula of the first show and kind of redoes it with different characters, but, because it takes the formula, it veers from the formula, too, so it veers from it at just the right times, so that, if you are a fan of the original series, it throws you off because you expect things to go one way, and they go the other direction, and it really does throw you off, and the story is great, and the mecha is great.

Unfortunately, there was one thing that I didn’t like about Macross Frontier is that it’s not hand-drawn mecha. The Veritech fighters, or the Valkyries, they’re not hand-drawn. They’re CG.

You get more dynamism out of them, but there’s something about hand-drawn giant robots that is awesome by the very fact that they’re hand-drawn, and they still look good.

There’s something about that art form that the Japanese animation studios have really nailed that I love, and I’m a little upset that Macross Frontier isn’t hand-drawn mecha, but that doesn’t destroy the show.

The story in it is fantastic, very dramatic, highly recommended. Macross Frontier, my Number Two.

1.  Vision of Escaflowne.

This is, believe it or not, a Mecha show. Even though it looks like a girl romance cartoon, it is not a girl romance cartoon. It’s got this gigantic monstrous Mecha in it. It’s about a girl who is a runner, and then, for some bizarre reason, she gets thrown into this magical fantasy world where she has to help two guys – both the guys, they have this armor, and then the armor is actually these gigantic robots.

It’s dramatic, it’s great, I love the world, I love the Mecha, the bad guy in it is, like, ridiculously awesome because you love to hate him.

The artwork – I love Escaflowne, the main robot in it. Imagine Norse mythology and that sort of thing, but kind of married to this fantasy Mecha-driving world, and you kind of get Vision of Escaflowne.

It’s got fantastic music. I believe I even bought the soundtrack because I like it so much.

My all-time favorite animated Japanese series is Escaflowne, and I haven’t seen it anywhere. Run by Bandai – I guess it was to sell toys, and they must not have sold a whole lot of toys.

They did a movie, a Vision of Escaflowne movie, which was nowhere near as good as the series. I love the series. I highly recommend it. If you really, really like Mecha, like I do, give Vision of Escaflowne a try.

What’s You’re Favorite Series?

So that’s my top ten. There’s a lot. There’s a lot of anime. I’ve been watching anime forever. I mean, I had ten years of binging on anime. I’ve seen a lot, so I would like to say that I know what I’m talking about. I haven’t seen every single thing. It’s impossible.

So, if I missed something that you think was great, let me know. Based on my obvious tastes, if you’ve seen what I’ve recommended, let me know what you guys think. If you’ve seen Vision of Escaflowne, let me know, because it’s a little bit obscure, I think.

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And that’s it from me. I’ll see you next time.

ANIMATION – Top Ten Miyazaki Movies

Simpsons Quote:

Focus Group Guy: [after showing the kids some Itchy & Scratchy cartoons] Okay, how many of the kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real life problems like the ones you face every day?

[the kids cheer]

Focus Group Guy: And who would like to see them do just the opposite, getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers.

[the kid kids cheer again]

Focus Group Guy: So you want a realistic down-to-earth show that’s completely off the wall and swarming with magic robots?

[the kids all chat at once about it being a great idea]

So one of the greatest animation directors on the planet is Japanese and his name is Hayao Miyazaki. Today I’m going to give you my top ten Miyazaki movies.

You can watch the video below or read the post with the links. I’ve embedded a trailer to each movie below:

Some of the links below are affiliate links. Thanks for your support.

Intro

I got exposed to Miyazaki while working on The Simpsons. Hayao Miyazaki is said to be the Walt Disney of Japan, and he’s made movies like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, things like that. That’s kind of how some people know him for, those three movies, because now his movies are being distributed by Disney.

So I decided to make a list of my top ten Miyazaki movies. So, let’s begin.

10. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Now this is not the video, this is actually the manga, and the reason I’m bringing up the manga is because the manga is actually a bazillion times better than the animated cartoon.

The manga was actually written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki. It is epic, and there’s like, I think of this volume, of these I think there’s like three or four, something like that.

The movie itself, the actual animated movie, it’s not my favorite. It’s okay. The manga is much better, if you want the full story, this is much better.

Nausicaa the movie felt like it was, like, act one. And it really does show you that it is act one if you read this manga series, but as an introduction to Miyazaki I don’t mind it.

It’s a little bit too dire, I don’t know, there’s something about the way it feels, but that’s why it’s on my number ten. I still like it a lot but I’d rather read the manga than watch the movie over and over.

9. Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke, it’s Miyazaki doing like a PG-thirteen animated movie. Most of his movies tend to be very family friendly. Princess Mononoke is not family friendly.

There’s a lot of gore and it’s very adult, but it deals with really adult themes, and as far as adult I mean mature, not immature adult themes, you know what I’m talking about, when people say “adult” you think of the most immature high school kind of pornographic stuff, which I find ironic.

It’s a very mature theme about humanity’s desire to be industrious and nature’s desire to not be destroyed by human industry and the war between these two ideas that are both good in and of themselves, but come into conflict when one suffers because of another. And it’s a beautiful, beautiful movie.

So that’s my number nine, if you haven’t seen it, Princess Mononoke, you should watch it.

8. The Secret World of Arrietty

Now The Secret World of Arrietty is one of the newer Miyazaki movies. It’s based on The Borrowers and it’s fantastic.

It should go without saying that every single one of Miyazaki’s movies are drop dead beautiful. The backgrounds are always incredible in every single Miyazaki movie. Arrietty is no exception.

The thing that I like the most about Arrietty, besides the story, the story is really great, but I liked the feeling of being small, like these little people that live under this house, and the perils of everyday life living and being that tiny. Just to get a drink of water, it was really great, because you can see that it was a drop.

Unlike any other, like, Disney or even Bluth animated movies where you’re talking about something small, this one actually felt like it was small.

It wasn’t, like, a reinterpretation of the big making it look tiny and then there’s this big dolly ride or something. No, this was actually, the water, the way it looked, the props that they used, there was nobody walking around with swords, it was needles and things like that that would actually be stuff that you would actually use. I really enjoyed that sense.

So, highly recommend The Secret World of Arrietty.

7. My Neighbor Totoro

I saw the Japanese version with subtitles the first time I saw it, and then eventually Fox started distributing it.

Beautiful family movie about two little girls living in the mountains in Japan, something like that, where they meet the spirit of the forest by the name of Totoro who looks like a big, gigantic, fluffy rabbit, but he’s ginormous.

It’s great, this movie influenced Avatar: The Last Airbender, because you’ve got the cat bus, the cat bus has multiple legs, and then suddenly in Avatar: The Last Airbender, you’ve got the buffalo, the air buffalo who also have the exact same legs, same everything.

It’s a beautiful little movie, very dramatic, heart wrenching. It makes you feel like a little kid, and that’s the best part about some of Miyazaki’s stuff, it’s just very observational, stories are very true to life, and you just feel for these characters.

No singing, no dancing, none of that stuff, and it’s not very formulaic, yet this works. Very magical. My Neighbor Totoro, fantastic movie.

6. Porco Rosso

Porco Rosso is the very strange story about a man who became a pig, and he’s a World War I pilot. But he has a pig face because of a curse, or I forgot, but it’s just something that he kind of did to himself.

It deals with really mature themes that are not necessarily little kid friendly, but when you watch it, and I mean, you sit down and you look at the art and the imagination and the locations, and as strange as it is, it also has this very comical story about this stuff, and it’s so, so great, so fantastic.

I love Porco Rosso. It was one of my least favorite, it was one of the ones that I was like, meh, take it or leave it, until I saw it just recently, like seven months ago, six months ago, I re-watched it again, and my jaw was on the floor.

It was so good. I must have matured, I must have finally gotten to the point where it’s like, oh, now I get this movie, it’s fantastic, oh my gosh, and the art and the airplanes, and they’re all hand drawn. And it’s just so good.

Watch Porco Rosso, it’s so good. I can’t recommend it enough.

5. Howl’s Moving Castle

This one was distributed by Disney. Story about a girl who turns into an old woman, and ends up in this magical castle that walks around on legs.

Yeah, totally crazy, kind of Baba Yaga-ish looking castle. It’s good. There’s something about the magic in this, I like the whole idea where the wizard, Howl, has this raven king kind of thing, he’s a wizard, and he’s got this raven motif which is a lot like the raven king, kind of.

If you’re into fairy tales and you understand about the raven and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, highly recommend it, I don’t know, it’s a beautiful thing, it’s a beautiful movie.

The castle’s fantastic, it’s a little quirky at the end, it has a really bizarre ending, and it’s open to interpretation. It’s worth watching. I liked it a lot. Howl’s Moving Castle.

4. Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro

Okay, so this is Miyazaki’s first feature animated movie. Lupin was a character created by Monkey Punch. He’s a manga character, he’s a thief, he’s always getting chased by Inspector Zenigata.

One of the very first things in this movie is a ridiculous car chase where he’s chasing this girl being chased by gangsters. One of the best car chases on film. It’s just crazy awesome, all hand drawn, the cars are all hand drawn.

You’ve got to understand that this is exciting cinematic car chasing in an animated cartoon with hand drawn cars.It’s awesome.

Then after that it just gets wilder and crazy and it’s just fantastic, it’s just, you know, Indiana Jones-ish kind of action adventure, packed with the guy who has to save the princess. It’s great, and I love, love, love this movie. My number four, Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro.

3. Island in the Sky

This fell down quite a bit. This was my number one movie for a very long time. This was one of the first Miyazaki movies I was ever exposed to and I was kind of blown away by it.

Indiana Jones action adventure style stuff, just like Cagliostro in a completely different way because this is actually looking for archaeological, you know, mythological place.

It’s an island that floats in the sky that supposedly hold treasure and everybody’s after it, and these two kids are the key to finding it. Specifically, this little girl. And it’s exciting, exciting, exciting.

You’ve got airships and sky pirates and evil, corrupt governments and it’s very Indiana Jones-ish. So I highly recommend this one, Island in the Sky.

2. Spirited Away

The reason I like this, I’m really into fairy tales, I really like the motifs of fairy tales and this is very, very, very much a fairy tale.

Starting off with going into the fairy tale universe, and knowing the rule of not eating the food in there because usually when you eat the food in fairy you end up becoming a prisoner in fairy, and then things go bad for you. Well, this is very much like that.

It’s a little bit Alice in Wonderland-ish, it’s a little bit of stepping into fairy and having to deal with all these fairy spirits and how to survive in fairy land, but it’s a very Japanese fairy land. I mean you’ve got witches that are very, very reminiscent of Slavic witches, like Baba Yaga, and it’s good, it’s fantastic.

This girl has to survive in a fairy tale land. She goes in a little girl and comes out a mature young woman. And it’s great, it’s great.

Kind of creepy, but fantastic. My number two is Spirited Away.

1. Kiki’s Delivery Service

This is the strangest one out of all of these. My personal taste is strange.

Kiki’s Delivery Service is about a little witch that has to become independent on her own. She turned fifteen, and apparently in her culture, once you turn fifteen you go out on your own and you build a life for yourself somewhere by yourself.

If you’ve watched Spider-man 2, they ripped off this story.

She has to kind of find herself, she kind of loses herself, and there’s even a section where she meets an artist in this movie where my friend, my Japanese friend, told me that he believes that Miyazaki put his own voice in the conversation that Kiki has with her friend the artist, and it’s a conversation about art, and it helps Kiki with her problem at the time.

You also have got Gigi, the best cat ever. This is the Disney version, isn’t it, yeah, the Buena Vista distributed one.

The translation, the dubbed version of this, is awful. AWFUL!

Phil Hartman does the voice. Now, Phil Hartman, you know, great actor, tragic death, BUT should not have been given the voice of Gigi. If possible watch the subtitled version because they kind of kill this movie with the dub version. I really didn’t like it.

I watched it without subtitles for the first time in Japanese, and then I watched it with subtitles, and I loved it, and then I watched the dubbed version and I was like, this is awful. What happened to Gigi, my favorite character in the movie, the little cute, super black, little cute cat that you just want to squish it because it’s such a cute cat.

I highly recommend Kiki’s Delivery Service. That’s my number one.

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So what do you think? Have you watched any of these movies? I bet you haven’t.

I highly recommend these movies. Hayao Miyazaki is by far one of the best animation directors on the planet.

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What’s Your Top Ten?

If you’ve seen these movies I’d like to know what you think about it, and if you haven’t and you start watching them, let me know what you think. Leave a comment.

ANIMATION – Top 10 Disney Animated Movies

Simpsons Quote:

Dr. Hibbert: Well, only one in two million people has what we call the “evil gene”. Hitler had it, Walt Disney had it, and… Freddy Quimby has it.

When I was getting into the animation industry and trying to become an animator, I really, really enjoyed watching and studying Disney movies. Today, I’m going to talk to you about my top ten Disney movies.

You can watch the video below or read the post with the links. I’ve embedded a trailer to each movie below:

Some of the links below are affiliate links, thanks for your support.

Studying Disney Movies

I couldn’t get enough of Disney movies, once upon a time. I say once upon a time because, now, I’ve studied them, I love them, they’re fantastic, but my tastes have changed so much.

I don’t mind family movies. I love family movies. I have four kids. Four kids, okay? We watch a lot of family movies. I love having something to watch with them.

But, as a work of art, for me – look, as an animator, watching Disney movies, I watch them in a very different way. I don’t watch them just purely for entertainment purposes. I watch them for a lot of different things.

Disney movies, I love to watch, because they’re always, always, always technically beautiful and fantastic.  But, they tend to be very samey. If there’s a critique from me about them is that, at least lately, they’ve been very samey. They took more risks early on.

So, here’s my top ten:

10. Tarzan

Tarzan, my Number Ten. Why?

I don’t like the comedic sidekick. That stuff always bugs me, and the stuff with the comedic sidekicks in here really, really bug me. Like, really.

But the reason it’s my Number Ten is because Tarzan‘s awesome! And there’s action, adventure, and excitement. And there’s just fighting, and it’s Tarzan! It’s Tarzan.

Seeing him go through the jungle and the way that Tarzan’s drawn and animated, and the characters are great. And the foliage and the background, the way it’s painted on there. There’s just a lot of great stuff.

It’s exciting. I do enjoy this movie, and, you know, Glen Keane, what can you say? He’s the lead animator on Tarzan.

Fantastic movie. It’s a lot of fun. My Number Ten is Tarzan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfciC33t3M0

9. Snow White

Now, Snow White was the first movie. It still holds up. It is beautiful. The animation is beautiful. It just works. And it works, and it works.

There’s a reason why this sucker is a classic.

So, my Number Nine is Snow White.

8. Fantasia

I’m going to cheat. I’m going to say Fantasia, and Fantasia 2000.

A masterpiece in just pure animation. The music is great. It’s hard to beat what an incredible work of art this is.

I sure did not appreciate this for a very long time, growing up. It wasn’t until after I got older and understood animation, and all those other things, that I really, really started opening up to this movie.

My Number Eight is Fantasia.

7. Little Mermaid

Little Mermaid: beautiful music, it’s responsible for the new renaissance of Disney animation.

Great. Fun. Very exciting. Classic. Disney formula stuff.Great movie.

Little Mermaid, my Number Seven.

6. Bambi

Incredible animation, again. Water colors are fantastic in this thing.

It’s an amazing movie. Highly influential movie, too.

Bambi is my Number Six.

5. Aladdin

I remember when this came out. It was senior ditch day, and I ditched school to go watch Aladdin.

So, I was in there by myself, freezing, while watching Aladdin. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed this movie. I laughed, I cried.

Great designs. Glen Keane animating Aladdin. It was very influential on me with that crazy mouth, that, you know, with the teeth, that Glen Keane tends to do a whole lot. And then you just try to copy it as an animator, and it looks like a copy instead of something that is you know, sort of looking like real life like you’re supposed to.

I really enjoyed Aladdin. Arabian nights, fantasy. That’s, that stuff was you know, right up my alley.

4.  Peter Pan

I really like the Peter Pan story.  The Disney version is a fantastic telling of the story.

This is such an incredibly well animated movie.  It has a great sense of magic and fun.

The character designs are fantastic.  How can you not like Tinkerbell, such cute girl design.

Captain Hook is so fun to watch. His acting is dead on.

Not the most Native American politically correct movie, it makes the movie unusually funny.  I love watching this movie. It make me feel like a kid when I watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K83Ix1R9Mc

3. Pinocchio

Pinocchio is, hands down, one of the greatest animated masterpieces ever. The Monstro whale sequence is mind-blowing. The acting, the animation. It’s creepy as heck.

When I was growing up, I hated, hated this movie. I didn’t want anything to do with this movie. This movie creeped me out.

Nowadays, when I watch this movie, I’m just in awe of how incredibly beautiful and well-animated – the story’s dark.

It’s – oh my gosh, it’s so good. Monstro the whale, like I said, is incredible. I can go on. I’m not going to.

2. Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast, what can I say? There is a reason why it won the Oscar for Best Picture. It’s fantastic.

Unfortunately, if you watch the animation now, you can see the flaws in the animation. Well, I can anyway.

Like, I can see when the animators changed, and there’s just some wonky drawings of the Beast in here, and all kinds of stuff.

Like, I can’t un-see the errors in the movie. In spite of being able to see that with my crazy animation eyes, this is a fantastic movie. It still holds up.

I hate the fact that they added an extra song. It kind of slows down the movie and messes up the pace, but, overall, it’s a fantastic movie. It still holds up, and it’s great.

1. Sleeping Beauty

Why? Because it is, hands down, the most beautiful animated Disney movie that’s ever been done.

If you know anything about animation, first of all, the backgrounds. The backgrounds are works of art, just the backgrounds themselves. This is just worth watching, just because of the backgrounds.

Okay. But then, on top of that, it’s a masterpiece of animation, and the designs of the characters are really graphic.

On top of that, the fact that the ink and paint department, which was an actual ink and paint department, it hand-inked every single line, so  that it had a different color. So, like, if you looked at the colors – like, they do that now digitally, but they had to do it by hand on cells when they did this movie.

Okay. So when you look at, you know, Aurora’s hair, and it’s a yellow, and it has a yellow self in line on it, and then it’s painted yellow on top of that, somebody had to hand, with a brush, ink that hair – you’ve got to understand, it’s about twenty-four frames per second, which means the drawing has to be exposed for one or two frames at a time for the animation to work.

Insane that it was all hand-inked, every single one of those drawings. Okay. That alone is incredible.

All right, but, then, on top of that, it’s got the greatest Disney villain in it.

Maleficent, giving nightmares to little kids since 19-whatever, 40 or whenever this movie was made.

My sister, when she was little, she had the record of Sleeping Beauty, and she never listened to the second side where Maleficent showed up because it scared the crud out of her. She turned into a dragon. It’s awesome, an awesome-looking dragon.

Like, it’s – come on. Number One, the best Disney animated movie. At least, according to my personal taste.

What Say You?

What do you think? Am I crazy? Let me know. Let me know what you would have picked as your number, as your ten top favorite Disney animated movies.

I had fun doing this list.

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So, I’ll see you next time.