(Japan 1988 86 min)
Director / Writer Hayao Miyazaki; Voice Acting Noriko Hidaka (Satsuki) Chika Sakamoto (Mei); Art Direction Kazuo Oga
by Stephen Russell-Gebbett
Satsuki (ten years old) and her younger sister Mei (four) are moving to the countryside with their father. There they can be nearer to their mother who is being cared for in a hospital nearby. During the day he goes to work, Satsuki goes to school and Mei stays with her Grandma.
Surrounded by paddy fields and dense woods their new home is a young girl’s idyll. They frolic and play act, revelling in the freedom of the land. It’s a joy to watch their hyperactive and elusive skittishness. Nothing can contain their innocent excitement, symbolised beautifully by the tadpoles Mei fails to catch in her hands. Quickly the sisters discover the hidden, enchanting wonders of the natural world – first soot sprites and then the giant cuddly Totoro, a wood spirit, and finally the mischievous-looking, eager-to-please Catbus – a cat that’s a bus.
Miyazaki understands these girls in this difficult period when their mother is ailing. The wonderful and infectious fantasy elements of the story are not a mawkish narrative contrivance but a soft light to shine on their thoughts and feelings, so meticulously and truthfully played out. They are an extension of the innocent and imaginative play of children. What is important is that these magical creatures don’t help the girls to forget their troubles but help them to cope with and confront them. Totoro and the Catbus reunite the family when Mei runs away to the hospital and take the girls to visit their mother. They help them to be the good daughters they want to be, providing them with a chance to explore rather than escape.
It is very easy, especially when leading up to a revelation of the best of the best, to write about the number one in terms of what it has that the others don’t and the flaws they had that it doesn’t. Yet what other film gives us scenes as transporting as the arrival of Totoro and then the Catbus in the nighttime rain or the sweet and honest pleasures of two young girls doing cartwheels simply because their new home is falling apart :
“Rickety!”
What other film is so limpid, so sincere and realistic in its portrayal of young love (the boy, Kanta, rendered mute and brusque by the pretty Satsuki) and loneliness (Mei feels home isn’t home without her mother). In what other storyteller’s hands would a parent trust his children so implicitly, not ridiculing their fantasies but understanding and enriching them: “You probably met the king of the forest. You’re very lucky”? Is there any other film that holds the fragile world of childhood so lightly in its palms, all that curiosity and awkwardness, fear and sparkling happiness?
No cynicism, no condescension, no patronising of an undigested grief that no amount of fun could hide.
What stays with you the longest though is those moments of pure, incredible make-believe: when the lights of a bus in the dark begin to hop and leap through the puddles or when the girls and their magical companions, in the dead of a moonlit night, urge Totoro’s seedlings to grow and flourish out of the ground. I love the feeling of a wet afternoon under an umbrella. I love the beaming smile of the boy as he flies his toy plane, remembering the girl he likes. I love that the Catbus can choose whatever destination he likes – not only ‘Hospital’ but ‘Mei’! I love the sense of relief when a shoe in a lake, believed to be Mei’s, turns out not to be.
Going out into the streets, into the wide world, having watched My Neighbour Totoro you understand what it means to have a song in your heart and a spring in your step. It is a burst of light, a fit of giggles and the greatest animated film I have ever seen.
Animation Countdown – The Final 50
1 My Neighbour Totoro
2 The Simpsons
3 Cinderella
4 Paranoia Agent
5 Whisper of the Heart
6 Spirited Away
7 Yokohama Shopping Log
8 The Hand
9 The Mascot
10 Patlabor 2 The Movie
11 Inspirace
12 Feeling from Mountain and Water
13 The Plague Dogs
14 Hedgehog in the Fog
15 Perfect Blue
16 The Adventures of Mark Twain
17 Le Nez
18 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
19 Early Abstractions
20 The Snow Queen
21 Porco Rosso
22 Triangle
23 The Battle of Kerzhenets
24 Pleasures of War
25 Allegro Non Troppo
26 Story of a Street Corner
27 La Joie de Vivre
28 Only Yesterday
29 Firing Range
30 Space Ghost Coast to Coast
31 The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia
32 Batman Mask of the Phantasm
33 Sinking of the Lusitania
34 The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
35 Crac
36 Serial Experiments Lain
37 Destino
38 Le Roi et L’Oiseau
39 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
40 Stoppit and Tidyup
41 The Metamorphosis of Mr Samsa
42 Street of Crocodiles
43 Swinging the Lambeth Walk
44 House of Flame
45 The Old Lady and the Pigeons
46 Valhalla
47 Sky Blue
48 Sleeping Beauty
49 A Picture
50 Yellow Submarine
and the ‘Nearlies’ : https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/the-animation-nearlies-100-51/
The Top 50 – Entrants by Country
13 Japan
9 USA
6 France
5 United Kingdom
4 USSR
3 Czechoslovakia
2 Canada
2 Denmark
1 China, Estonia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, South Korea
Thanks
Many thanks to Sam and Allan for giving me the opportunity to conduct this countdown on their site. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to anyone who made suggestions or recommendations before and during the countdown and to those who left comments. I hope I could introduce people to some things that are new and worthwhile. Thanks too to Mr Y. Tube without whom none of this would have been possible – whether tracking down rare short films or posting them here.
Images from the Nearlies
Avatar The Last Airbender - I've only seen a few episodes. I liked the film and now, going back to the series, I would put it a lot higher. It's an exciting story with a good heart.
Tyger
Balance
Muto - Wall drawing animation in Buenos Aires
Monsters Inc. - The top Pixar
What’s your favourite animated film?
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
Nice pick, and it definitely fits the spirit of this whole countdown. Great job – this was a wonderful list and exciting exercise.
I wrote about my own #1 on Monday. But it receives very close competition from another film which I will be paying visual tribute to tomorrow at noon (there will be a post on another animated film going up at 2 – it’s a busy day – but this will be in honor of the holiday season, not the countdown).
Thanks MovieMan.
I will definitely be coming there to have a look.
Wow, GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES didn’t appear in the top 100? I thought it would see 1, am I just missing it right in front of my eyes?
Jamie, you do have an excellent point here, as GRAVE would make my own Top 10.
No, Jamie, I’m afraid not.
For me it was over-sentimental. It dwelt on and played up the sadness and the tragedy unnecessarily. Isao Takahata was represented by ONLY YESTERDAY however.
Sam,
What other films / tv shows would be in your top ten?
I will be dotting this thread with exaples of my top ten of the genre.
Number 10:
WHAT’S OPERA DOC? (d. Chuck Jones)
NUMBER 10:
TOY STORY (John Lassiter)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYz2wyBy3kc&feature=related
Well, Stephen, so this is the end.
While you have issued thanks to Allan and I (and to all the others here at Wonders in the Dark) the truth is it is YOU who must be thanked. What blogsite (having received 50 full essays from an outside writer, not to mention all the lead-ins and nearlies) wouldn’t send it’s emissaries to kiss the feat of the author of such a spectacular run in their behalf? And this wasn’t just scratch writing or rushed reports, this was serious, analytical, descriptive writing that often achieved pure poetry. While the horror film people did a fantastic job too, and all of those guys are great friends and troupers, I will give you a singular pat on the back for doing this entire project all by yourself. You have done yeoman work right along at CHECKING ON MY SAUSAGES, but I dare say your countdown work matches your best stuff over there. It was focused, impassioned, educational, persuasive and engineered with a singular sense of humility. Who could ask for more, or hope to get as much?
You have not merely hit a home run here, you have hit a grand slam, and run up a 48 point lead in the fourth quarter against your opponents in the last Super Bowl. You have put together a project here that deserves full inquiry by editors,and by those desiring a full tutorial on the history of animation. I can’t say how much I have learned here, as it’s incalcuable, but I will say that I have a permanent reference point to broaden my own horizons. My favorite essays of all your work here, oddly enough was not the Japanese work that dominated the countdown, but rather the “finds” in Eastern European cinema. Still your work with Miyazaki and Kon was incomparable, and I did a few days ago see this #1 choice coming. Yeah, I guess most would have SPIRITED AWAY above it, but heck, you had that film as #6 anyway.
You’ve come along way too at this site since that contentious fray over CITIZEN KANE, which I now look back on as an example of bad behavior on my part, and a foolish desire to bully someone into thinking like I did. I was hoping for more comments than we received, but I guess I must look at the consistency. WordPress reveals some serious traffic right along, with a few essay sgetting terrific responses. And Stephen never once complained to me (as he had a right to) over the ceaseless “topping” at teh site, where his essays were sometimes buried befor 10 hours were up. But as I say the page views revealed a large audience, which of course was richly deserved.
Alas my very good friend, you have bullied no one here, and allow your passion and talent to give out to every cineastes an animated gift, with the green and red of Christmas to all those who take this art form seriously. No bullying from Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks or anyone else by a personalized view forged by close scrutiny.
We are deeply honored and grateful for all you have done here Stephen, and you have greatly enriched this blogsite, and done much for this beloved form. We really owe you so much.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Let’s have a toast everyone, for Stephen Russell-Gebbett!
Thanks again Sam. You’re right that it wasn’t the most popular countdown (part of that is down, I’m sure, to the obscurity of many of my choices) but I was glad to hear what a good few regulars thought (Yourself, Dennis, Frederick, Frank, Peter, Jaime).
It’s good that you could gain something from it as I’m sure I will from your Musicals countdown and the others to come.
Merry Christmas to you and your family too.
I probably speak for others when I say I was reading along even when I wasn’t commenting! (Partly because I hadn’t seen so many picks, partly because I caught up with some posts after the fact, partly because I’ve just been crazy busy as of late.) I also really appreciate your economical and personable writing style, which many bloggers, including myself, would do well to emulate! I tried to though, a bit, with my response to your countdown, so thanks for being a good influence!
Merry Christmas from the other side of the pond…
Thanks very much MovieMan.
I understand. Sometimes it’s hard to comment if you haven’t seen what is being written about – often I want to leave a comment saying that I appreciate someone’s writing but think it sounds lame or silly and so choose not to. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading and enjoying what I’ve been reading.
Merry Christmas to you too, and your family and friends.
NUMBER 8:
THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED (Lotte Reineger)
NUMBER 8:
THE SINKING OF THE LUSCITANIA (Windsor McKay)
NUMBER 7:
MINNIE THE MOOCHER (Max and Dave Fleicsher)
Excellent pick – I recently declared Boop’s Snow White to be my #2, maybe even #1, animated film of all time but this one’s great too.
NUMBER 6:
SPIRITED AWAY
NUMBER 5:
THE WRONG TROUSERS (Nick Park)
NUMBER 4:
DUCK DODGERS AND THE 24th AND A HALF CENTURY (Chuck Jones)
NUMBER 3:
POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINBAD THE SAILOR (Max and Dave Fleischer)
NUMBER 2:
THE CAT CAME BACK (Cordell Barker)
NUMBER 1:
PINOCCHIO (Walt Disney)
Dennis,
I always enjoy seeing other people’s choices. I was especially keen to see what you might pick given the enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, animation.
PINOCCHIO is one of the better Disney films. For me it is one of the few that can hold their head above the water of mediocrity (or worse). I’m afraid I don’t like TOY STORY and it would be nice if you or someone else who appreciates them could write a piece on what they like about Pixar. I like those shorts and THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED made my nearlies – with Lotte Reiniger’s CINDERELLA at number 3. SPIRITED AWAY was also my number 6(!) I’m not a big fan of WALLACE AND GROMIT but Nick Park’s CREATURE COMFORTS made my top 100.
Thanks Dennis very much indeed for all your insightful, passionate and kind comments throughout the top 50.
My personal top ten (off the top of my head):
(1) Neon Genesis Evangelion
(2) Robot Carnival
(3) Fantastic Planet
(4) Tenchi Muyo
(5) Shaft of Light
(6) The Big O
(7) Project A-ko
(8) Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown
(9) Twice Upon a Time
(10) Cowboy Bebop
Bob,
I played with having NEON GENESIS and ROBOT CARNIVAL in the top 100. I quite like them but, for me, they miss something to get me excited or moved or thinking deeply. Your top ten has a Japanese flavour too (and a televisual one) though your choices are completely different. Their anime leads the way for modern animation – inspired by their manga.
“Evangelion” is the big blank spot for me, Stephen, but it’s so idiosynchratic I kinda like the fact that it isn’t a given. Perhaps it just has a perfect synthesis of action/adventure and agnst-ridden psychodrama for my tastes. I’m especially looking forward to the second “Rebuild” film that will come out in New York next month. As for “Robot Carnival”, it was literally one of the first anime I ever saw, so it’s a given for me (the same goes for the “Tenchi” OVA and the first “A-ko” film– they’re among my formative experiences).
I’ll admit my list is a bit of an anime overdose– the highest American work is a short virtually nobody’s ever heard of, and as far as I know has never been followed up by its director. The only oversight I can think of offhand is the “Gumby” series, which I’ve always adored.
I’m more concerned by the absence of Tex Avery. No Red Hot Riding Hood, Bad Luck Blackie, King Size Canary, The Cat That Hated People, Magical Maestro, all of which were better than I Love to Singa, which was in the nearlies.
Allan, I must say that I LOVE TO SINGA, which Stephen loves is one of the very best Averys, even if the ones you mention are great as well.
I Love to Singa isn’t pure Avery, though, it owes more to Warners output. The pure Averys are the MGMs. I Love to Singa is diluted, it’s like alcohol free beer.
All I can say is the others didn’t get me (or I didn’t get them) in the same way.
Sam, what happened to your “I love Driving Miss Daisy” second name? Short-lived but much missed.
It’s back Stephen. I’ll keep it going at THIS site only!!!
Thanks!
Haha!!
I’m afraid I have to side with Mr. Fish on this point and a few others he made rather forcefully some time ago.
I know and appreciate all the hard work that Stephen put into this count and I adore and respect the fact that he made an effort to focus more on films that may have slipped through the cracks in lieu of bigger, more well known works by the titans of the form (ex. Walt Disney, Tex Avery etc.). However, without some kind of representation of the firmaments, it seems that the count is somewhat incomplete.
Now, here me out on this. As with the Horror Film count, the venture is to bring to the surface films we may not have heard of along with the films that, perhaps inspired them or they inspired. Looking at a film like THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, one can see the hands of the Fleischers inspiring or being inspired (hell, to a certain extent, even Disney’s ALADDIN could have been drawn in as part of a comparative discussion).
Listen, I don’t wanna rain on anyones parade, and I want everyone to know that I think that Stephen has done a mercurial job here. It can be no easy task writing 50 essays, meeting deadlines, and commenting on the threads all at once. However, I think we should look at this count not as a count chronicling the historic highwater marks of the form but as a PERSONAL exploration in the kinds of animation that floats Stephens boat. In that, I say this is easily one of the most interesting and enlightening counts and series we have ever seen WITD host on the net.
Where I get nervous, is the alomost total avoidance of the works of the main artists and houses that, literally, paved the paths for all that are represented here. NO DISNEY? NO CHUCK JONES? NO TEX AVERY? NO MAX FLIESCHER? NO PIXAR? I’m sorry, but even the horror film count conceded to a film like PSYCHO in the nuumber one position simply because it is the best and it is, probably, the most influential in the genre.
If anything, I would have probably advised Stephen to tweak his count with maybe two or three titles that, regardless of what he personally thinks of them, really needed to be represented somewhere in his final twenty five slots. The facts remain that whether you like PINOCCHIO or not, it remains the high water mark of animatio to this day and ushered in more technical advancements in the art of animation than any film till the inception of PIXAR.
Then of course, there is PIXAR. Like it or lump it, they are now the powerhouse animation studio and artists working in the field. The critical and mass audience response to their films are almost perfect and the ingenuity, creativity and excellence in the execution of every aspect of their movies is damn near flawless. They pride themselves on presenting stories that teeter-totter between being kids fare and adult movie making and they always seem to satisfy both at the same time.
I want to make it clear that I am not bashing Stephen at all for his monumental work here on this glorious celebration of animated films, not in the least (I was one of the most verbal and supportive commentators on his threads), but I do have to say, that I agree (and this is rare) with my colleague, Mr. Fish, that representation of some of the titans would have been just and warranted acknowledgement if, for anything else, just to get them out of the way so Stephen could get to the films that really turned him on.
I listed my top ten to illustrate how a student of animation would have listed the great works of the form if a gun had been placed to his head and he was forced into a top ten…
Again, I have nothing but praise for Stephens monumental venture and I want in no way for anyone to misconstrue my slight criticisms for bashing.
I think Stephen’s (lack of) appraisal towards pixar was both refreshing and incredibly welcome. It’s just one of the many reasons I respect this list so much and want to return to many of the selections in the future.
Dennis,
It is a personal list. I said that that would be my approach because there is no other way I could judge worth because something being influential or a staging post in history would not be evidence of quality. It isn’t a chronicle of the evolution of animation.
I’m not sure if I would want to do a countdown writing about things that don’t enthuse me. It’s one perspective and, given that there are many histories of animation dealing with the (mostly American) ‘titans’ that you mention one I thought would not be ‘irrelevant’ or too eclectic.
I understand that I could have mentioned these animators in passing but perhaps it would have seemed contrived or dismissive to bring something up a propos of little only to discard it.
Anyway, thank you very much for the comments throughout Dennis.
and, I’d add to Stephen’s point, since the Horror countdown was brought up, that not one of my picks (and I think the 3 others who working on it with me would agree) was picked due to ‘influence’ or ‘historical merit’. It’s the reason why there were so many new surprises with giallo, extreme and art horror, it’s what our generation (and decades in the future will bear this out) appreciates and see value in.
When you look over this list, you realize how much Stephen adores and appreciates serious art– animation as subversive propaganda, anti-war films, art pieces, abstract, etc. When this is realized it only further trivializes talking dogs, and toys come to life, and pointless escapism.
“All serious art is being destroyed by commerce. Most people don’t want to art to be disturbing. They want it to be escapist. I don’t think art should be escapist. That’s a waste of time.” -Edward Albee
words to live by.
What I like about Stephen’s list is its diversity – no dogma but his own personal opinion. Subversion AND escapism (sometimes within the same package), Albee be damned!
“I’ll go with Ecclesiastes rather than Albee (who, in regards to commerce and escapism, is confusing the tail with the dog).”
Oh, but he’s so not.
It does remind me of a quote a director once said about film (I can’t for the life of me remember off the top of my head), something like “film is like a dog. the business part of it is the body, and the art part is the tail. And unfortunately the tail almost NEVER walks the dog” (!). or something like that.
lets not forget that the Disney that Eisenstien (and Hitler) liked was quite a bit different then what Pixar is and now stands for.
reading Albee’s work the quote makes more sense (the quote isn’t meant to exist in a vacuum outside his work), imagine if Pinter, Brecht, or Beckett said that… it would hold more weight around here, but Albee’s in their league. It’s serious art, in rejection to art that’s dulled peoples senses to the point of juvenile like sensibilities.
You’re a fast reader, Jamie, I already deleted that comment for one more epigramatic!
The point is not about the film industry per se, but about why escapism is popular. Go to the least economically developed societies on earth, and you will still find people utilizing fantasy and imagination to understand their environment, and yes, to “escape” from day-to-day reality. (Side point: In a sense, ALL art is escapist.)
In other words, the desire for escape and imagination and fantasy, whether one celebrates or denigrates these values, precedes the development of capitalism, though Albee conflates the two in his quotation.
BUT that’s not to say the development of consumerism, commerce, etc. and its intermingling with art has not affected the end result (it’s not black/white). Related to that, what you say about Disney/Pixar is interesting and has some truth to it (personally, I’m much more fond of the former than the latter, and even with Disney maybe 1 feature and a handful of shorts would probably make any top 350 or so I made).
But it needs to be elucidated (and researched to verify that you’re inclinations about the process behind and outcome of Pixar are warranted) – I’d still be interested in reading that anti-Pixar piece, though part of me dreads it, not because I’m especially fond of Pixar (only Wall-E struck me as truly great, though I haven’t seen Toy Story for years) but because I suspect I’ll adamently disagree with your premises and perhaps some of your methodology – and right now I want disagreement about as much as a hole in the head!
Anyway, merry Christmas to you out there in drab, atheist Cleveland from drab, lapsed Catholic Boston! 🙂 Make sure to take your eggnog strong…
It’s probably good that Albee thought this, as I’m sure it strengthened his own work (much as part of Bergman being Bergman and good at being Bergman entails his hating Welles and Godard). But I do think he’s wrong.
Escapism can sharpen rather than dull the senses, indeed depending on the person, it can do much more to sharpen the senses than something “realistic.” (Ultimately, when we get into the realm of great art and true appreciation, I find personal preference tends to drift away – I have a fondness for the imaginative and expansive but when confronted with a fully realized vision, I don’t really care if its sensibilities align with my own, I want to go along for the ride – that’s why I love diversity in art, I want all the experiences I can soak up, from the escapist to the not and back again.)
MM, I have watched the 5 or so Pixars we spoke about all those months ago, jotted down enough of my thoughts to probably write fours pages on. But I’ve decided to probably never post it here. I not ashamed of it, nor do I think my reactions or methodology (and both are distilled from my worldview and my take on art with said worldview) are incorrect but I just don’t think this is the audience. It’s like that Manic Street Preacher song ‘ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit’sworldwouldfallapart’ the essay would be ‘ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayABOUTPIXAR(orit’sEscapistArt)it’sworldwouldfallapart’, meaning many around here are liberal but nobody wants a thorough questioning of the beliefs they feel they have even if the art they like (that isn’t really art but Escapism) doesn’t reflect that worldview OR actively works to undermine those beliefs.
In short, I’ve been quite passivized. But hey the ideas still exist in my head, and I still reject the stuff. (I do suppose if I ever do complete it I can pass it only to just you in email). In the meantime you can just listen to ‘Disney’s Dream Debased’ by the Fall.
happy holidays to you, but btw, I’m only a Clevelander in heart now. Geographically I lay my head in Chicago. Wherever I am though, it would be attending a christmas mass!
A P.S. (related) and a P.P.S. (or is it P.S.S.) to take a more light-hearted, er, escapist, tone…
P.S. one other thing that puts me in opposition to this general argument is that I just don’t see the tension others do. My two favorite filmmakers are probably Godard and Spielberg – the white-hot avant-gardist and the imaginative mythmaker (though in both cases even these summations may be too narrow – Godard’s love of pop entertainment in his early works and Spielberg’s incorporation of Altmanesque observation in his early works being good counterexamples). At any rate, they engage different sides of my sensibility and I wouldn’t do without either.
Another example: My #1 and #2 animated films of all time are Street of Crocodiles and the Betty Boop Snow White (which I prefer to the Disney – pleeeeease watch it if you haven’t yet, it’s friggin’ awesome…) – these subversive shocks are probably the most indicative of my taste in animation.
But at the same time, I’ve just initiated a long-term Disney marathon (right now I’m still in the early Alice cartoons) for reasons at once historical (to see the development of a major form and one of its major practitioners), aesthetic (I enjoy ), and nostalgic (some of these – like say the all-animal Robin Hood – I haven’t seen since I was a little kid). I’m not ashamed of any of those motivations, and don’t see any reason to make excuses or apologize for them. And I certainly don’t see how they hinder my appreciation of the realistic, the avant-garde, or the subversive. Art ain’t a zero-sum game.
And that is probably the neatest, most straightforward summation I’ve ever been able to offer of my opinion on this matter, so I’ll leave it there.
Oh, as for the PPS/PSS:
I was going to embed a Rocko’s Modern Life Christmas special but apparently the only edition on You Tube is, um, upside-down. Drats.
Ah, the Jack Nicholson defense: “You can’t handle the truth!”
“meaning many around here are liberal but nobody wants a thorough questioning of the beliefs they feel they have even if the art they like (that isn’t really art but Escapism) doesn’t reflect that worldview OR actively works to undermine those beliefs.”
Or rather, they don’t apply political litmus tests to art at all, and wouldn’t care if those films do reflect a different worldview? I know that’s how I tend to feel (added after you probably read this: I note the values of, say, The Incredibles, as well as how they differ from my own, but don’t think this has much bearing on my opinion of said film). But since this is such a vague statement (what are those “liberal” beliefs, how does Pixar differ from them, how does it undermine them, how is this undermining active – are you suggesting it’s conscious on the filmmakers’ part?), I’m not even sure how to refute or challenge or even humor it, so yes in the end I do think you need to post your Pixar piece, at least if you’re going to keep making statements about Pixar and those who like it! Or maybe just e-mail it to me…
Anyway, Happy Festivus…
P.S. (The Incredibles is definitely pretty politically conservative – though its conservatism is an out-of-date aristocratic sort that pre-dates Reagan; much like The Dark Knight… Wall-E, on the other hand, tends toward the center-left in its second half. The others are, to my memory, only “liberal” or “conservative” in the broadest sense – aesthetically, they all hew to conventional narrative terms, but so do most horror films; the extremism seems to tend toward the content rather than the form.)
P.P.S. Have you read Film as a Subversive Art by Amos Vogel? Check out it out from the local library – I’m sure Chicago has a copy! Then again, maybe not, Boston didn’t, and I had to buy one, but well worth the purchase…
Well if you’re someone like me–terribly depressive, terribly disappointed–feeling that art is the only opportunity for something more; something real, something transcendent, something that can legitimately effect social change (and it’s singular in these regards to anything else in this world) it shouldn’t be watered down (at best) or messageless (at worst). this is what Escapist art is to me, basically a bourgeois activity, to pass time because we have the means to pass time. many don’t… this doesn’t mean that stuff will get (or did used to get) put on in my apartment that was entertaining fluff but I personally feel (this isn’t a condemnation in any regard to you or anyone who feels like you, this is just a personal admission) sick to my stomach with guilt, shame, and regret with stuff like that, and partaking in stuff like that.
Spielberg may have value (to you, absolutely none to me), but even if he does, I feel his negatives grossly outnumber them.
_ _ _
RE: Championing Diversity. I do, believe it or not. But I also have a tightly defined worldview that can find so much great diversity in my ‘spheres’. I don’t need to claim Diversity’s flag and say I like opposite poles… a reason I so wanted to do the Beatles series (and I hope this idea is starting to emerge with that series) is to show that with enough love, enough scouring one can find countless diversity with one articulated worldview. (in film terms think of the worlds that exist between say Godard and Oshima, in other words, diversity… but then watch a mid-60s Godard like MASCULINE-FEMININE that I know you like then watch DIARY OF A SHINJUKU THIEF or MEDIUM COOL and WEEKEND, or etc. Worlds of diversity exist when one tightens the belt).
Oh, and it bears repeating since I’m always left carrying the weight for the Pixar team (where are Dennis and Sam when these arguments arise? lol!) that I don’t really care all that much about Pixar. I enjoy their films (though the only one of the past 10 years I’ve seen in theaters is Ratatouie), and think they’re head and shoulders above most mainstream Hollywood films being released today but I think that probably says more about mainstream Hollywood films being released today than about Pixar. Truth be told, I’m probably most interested in your point about early Disney differing from Pixar than rather than the commonalities of both…
Shoot, a post goes up in 8 hours and I haven’t started work on it yet and I’ve been up for 16 hours and I’m going up to my parents tomorrow and I haven’t packed…Wonders strikes again.
“Ah, the Jack Nicholson defense: “You can’t handle the truth!”
No you could, and probably many others could to… but it would inevitably be a depressive venture for me, shot down with ease by uncontemplative responses to things or ideas I’ve worked hard on. I know you’ve felt this. I just don’t want to bother, right now. besides, on other fronts (design and painting) I’m stretching myself quite thin at the moment.
“Hollywood films being released today but I think that probably says more about mainstream Hollywood films being released today than about Pixar.”
yes, part of my entire point (the nonpolitical parts anyway), at some point we all admit that mainstream Hollywood films BLOW now. Why is this? The sooner you admit that it’s because Escapist art is shallow and can’t really go anywhere (so once it has hold for a decade or two nothing of real value will be produced consistently) the sooner you’ll be on my side. I loathe Pixar and Disney and Spielberg because I see no bigger offenders on the screen.
I’m out for tonight, so work away… till be converse again.
Yeah, blogging/discussing has become a chore for me as well, so I hear you. (Ex: this comment was originally quite long and extensive and I deleted it because the whole discussion felt tiresome to me. The phase of my life when I enjoyed this sort of thing is kinda over!)
Peace to Chi-town…
Brilliant brilliant countdown Stephen. I could’t really participate given my circumstances. But I’m sure I’ll keep coming back here for reccos.
Hats off. You deserve a break.
Merry Xmas and a happy new year.
Yes, it has been an exceptional countdown. Stephen has earnt his spurs.
I agree Allan, a terrific job indeed!
Thank you so much JAFB! A merry Christmas to you too.
Thank you Allan too.
There are many surprising and cool choices on your list. I was especially please to see Totoro take a deserved top spot. Looking forward to scoping out some of your picks that I haven’t yet seen.
My top ten:
1. My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki)
2. Wings of Honneamise (Yamada)
3. Ghost in the Shell (Oshii)
4. Popeye (Fleischer Bros. Cartoons)
5. Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
6. Akira (Otomo)
7. Kimagure Orange Road: I Want to Return to That Day (Mochizuki)
8. Bambi (Hand)
9. Tale of Tales (Norshteyn)
10. The Sky Crawlers (Oshii)
Thanks Burt. There are quite a few of the short picks embedded on the posts.
I like that top ten and it seems to be strongly Japanese too. I haven’t seen KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD. I’ll seek it out. I would recommend HIS AND HER CIRCUMSTANCES if you haven’t seen it – another enjoyable high school/college romance.
Great finale Stephen!
I have learned and been impressed by all you have done. And I was fortunate to get the opportunities to participate.
Happy Holidays to you.
Thank you, Peter. Thanks for the comments and for the participation. It was most welcome.
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.
Excelent ending to a masterful countdown. I haven’t seen this, but I want to remedy that soon, with all the other Ghibli efforts.
I was supposed to bring you my top 10, but my list doesn’t seem to be loading right now, so I’ll leave it there for now.
Thanks Jaime. Your contributions have been great. I do hope you can see the Ghibli films and report back on what you make of them. It’s a shame my Spanish isn’t good enough for me to properly reciprocate at your blog.
I look forward to your top ten.
Because I haven’t seen every episode of “The Simpsons” or “Sakura Card Captors” or many other animated series, this list will contain, mostly, feature films and shorts, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like Animated TV.
1. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) – I’m in love with this story, I’m tracking down every version of it, the novel and the manga.
2. Spirited Away (2001)
3. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
4. Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind (1984)
5. WALL·E (2008)
6. The Lion King (1994)
7. Up (2009)
8. Haibane Renmei (2002)
9. Summer Wars (2009)
10. Destino (2003) – thanks to you.
That’s it.
Thanks for the list Jaime. I’m delighted that one of the ones I introduced you to made such an impact. I haven’t seen THE LION KING for a long while and I really do want to give THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME another go (especially after getting a fair deal of praise here). I like HAIBANE RENMEI and perhaps it should have been higher on my list (it was 81) – the sheer weight of Japanese films and shows I liked probably made it seem slightly worse in comparison than it was.
I haven’t seen all episodes of THE SIMPSONS but I thought I could put it in anyway.
Just curious, Sam or Allan, was it necessary for Dennis to post a dozen Y Tubes to allow people to see the entire Pinocchio?
Isn’t there a more economical way to do this?
The reason, Peter, was because I don’t do anything incomplete.
The other reason was because not everyone can afford to go out and rent or buy a copy of PINOCCHIO at the drop of a pin. I thought it might be fun to make the film available for anyone that wanted to see it immediately and, quite frankly, I’m just learning all the little technical tricks to this wonderful place called computers and thought it was nifty to pop em up here.
I am not taking issue with that Dennis, and I appreciate your efforts. What I am asking is whether or not the entire film could have been posted in maybe one or two parts.
make a youtube ‘mix’, in which all the selected videos are played back to back when the first is selected (it’s a cool and easy feature of the post-google buying youtube). That way you’ll just have to post the initial video of the mix to someone.
Or assume that virtually everyone here, being avid film fans, have seen PINOCCHIO.
Yes, Dennis, but I’m sure the readers are not so stupid they can’t manouevre their way to parts 2 through to the end. Just post Part 1.
Again, my fascination and discovery of what I can do with computers got the best of me. Thanks everyone for the shortcuts. I’ll have to look into learning them better.
I’m still a PC virgin…
Eh, I enjoyed the enthusiasm of the gesture. People don’t do things by half-measures on Wonders. 🙂
Oh and yes, I also want to extend a cyber-hand to Stephen for both a handshake, a cheers, and an applause. A fantastic countdown here; both highly educated and conscious of the animation medium’s history, and also showed a love that only an extreme fan could hope to have. I know I’ve been given many titles to seek out, and I’ve never been a lover of the medium. I can’t give a better appraisal then that.
Really nice job.
What’s next? Noir, Western, Sci-Fi?
Cheers Jamie for the kind words! I couldn’t be happier that I’ve started you off on a new animated adventure.
Yes, what is next?
Lesbian vampire? In honour of the late Jean Rollin.
I can offer up a few titles Allan…
(seriously after all the ‘grand’ genres are done… ‘Western’, ‘War Film’, ‘Musical’, etc. I’d L O V E to see some really absurd niche sub-genre countdowns. Best road-films, best Pinku’s, Best Women-in-Prison, Best masked-killer films, best Angry-young-men films, Best shaved-head women films, and yes, most definitely, best Lesbian-vampire films, best teenage tragedy pop songs, best guitar solos, etc. Lets Go Crazy!)
I was going to email Sam about the possibilitie of doing Sub-Genre Countdowns, maybe not 100 or 50, but 25 or sometimes 10, like Best Zombie Films, Best Giallo, Best Pinky Violence, Best Nikkatsu Porno, Best Lesbian Vampire, Best Hammer, Best Troma (heh), Best Road Movies (indeed), Best French Extreme, Best Nouvelle Vague, Best Japanese New Wave, etc…
So many sub genres indeed.
What’s next indeed?
Well folks, up next is my very good friend Maurizio Roca, who will insitutute a new approach for his Top 50 (one a day) film noir countdown. For those who remember Dave Hicks’ countdown of months ago at GOOD FELLAS, they’ll know Maurizio wasn’t always in agreement. Like Dave, FILM NOIR is Maurizio’s specialty (as it is of course Tony and Dee Dee’s) and he will be heard in most persuasive terms I am sure.
After that Bob Clark will finally have his moment in the sun with the long-awaited SCIENCE-FICTION poll, which he claims will be showcased at WitD only on weekends. Thus, it may take months to get through it.
Then, Yours Truly will move ahead on the Top 50 musical films!
And then, we need a volunteer still for a category that should appeal to almost everyone:
The Top 50 comedies
Surely there is someone out there who could volunteer for that? I would do it myself, if the musicals weren’t already firmed up.
And they there is the 50 Greatest War Films. (no volunteer yet either)
Attention TRUE GRIT, Coen Brothers and John Wayne Fans!!!
There is a very lively back and forth discussion going on here at LIC between Craig Kennedy and yours truly. As Craig and I are good friends, it’s civil, but it shows two sides of the coin. Of course, like Maurizio, we both love the new film, but have different opinions as to how it sizes up with the original:
http://livingincinema.com/2010/12/15/review-true-grit-2010-12/
The last 8 or 9 comments are from Craig and I.
Great job, Stephen – a lot of films I haven’t seen, so I will be returning to your postings in the future, as I am still doing with the other countdowns here. I have seen and loved ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, though, and am delighted to see it in the top spot – I also liked the more recent ‘Ponyo’ from Ghibli a lot, not sure if you included that one among the nearlies. Anyway, well done.
Thank you Judy.
As I’ve said above, there are quite a few of the films embedded in their posts.
PONYO did make the nearlies. I think I may have had it too low. It has some wonderful moments.
Thank you, Mr. Russell-Gebbett, for a most unique and educational list. I disagree with your dismissal of Disney and Pixar, but that matters little as the rest of your picks were so fascinating and spurred me on to watch several that I had never seen before (and will probably spur me to watch a bunch more in the future, as well). I especially liked Allegro Non Troppo, which I am rather stunned I had never heard of before. My Neighbor Totoro has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it at a friend’s house in kindergarten. Truly a masterpiece.
An earlier poster suggested that this list ought to have been more conventional/historically minded, but I disagree. I always understood your list to be a personal one, and that’s what made it unique. I certainly see the value in a Greatest Hits-type list, and my own list would be more conventional, but since I’ve already seen most of the well-known classics, this one forces me to do a lot more digging. As to traffic and commenting: I have lurked about your blog and this one now and then over the past couple months, but this list was the one that really grabbed my interest. I haven’t read every essay yet, and I didn’t wait each week for the next one and comment on it, but it’s definitely been fascinating to watch. And after this, I think I will make these two logs regular reads. So you’ve gained at least one new reader by this.
Many thanks, Stephen.
It’s odd that, though I have no great love for Disney, three of their films made my Top 50. There are those rare times when their films can transport me.
I thought sections of ALLEGRO NON TROPPO were worthy of a top ten spot, but I had to go with an aggregate rating. However personal or different the choices, there seems to be a sort of consensus around the more ‘conventional’ number 2 and number 1. For me, there never seemed any doubt that they would be at the top. MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO is one of the best films I’ve seen regardless of its medium.
I’m glad you found this, and my own blog, of interest and use. Thanks again.
This is a truly great comment, Mr. Morton, and while I am sure Stephen will address it himself, I want to say I agree with every point you make from top to bottom, and say again that Stephen fully deserves all the praise you’ve heaped on him here.
This is really a reference countdown for the ages.
Indeed. Always nice to find a new reader brought to the Wonders fold.
Is everyone going to use these names now?
Apparently.
“Is everyone going to use these names now?”
It has to stop. It’s getting ridiculous.
hahahahahahahahahaha Jaimie!
I think that’s a great idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have somehow stumbled onto something here!
Let’s see if everyone plays along!
Let’s hope!
It’ll be a bit difficult for the single word names like MovieMan and Jamie. I wonder if we’ll ever see something like: Dee “I Love Ratatouille” Dee.
And so it ends…… good job Stephen. Sorry I didn’t participate more but animation is not my thing.
love the new names guys, though stuff like ‘his girl friday’ and ‘annie hall’ are technically romantic comedies.
should my nickname be jamie “death to pixar”.
For single word names, I suggest it be something like: Jamie AKA “Death to Pixar”.
Thanks Maurizio. Good luck on your film noir countdown (I hope I’ve got that right). I’ll be following it closely.
Stephen….It’s been an enthralling journey with many surprises and mighty educational to boot. I’m glad that you didn’t place any emphasis on the influence a film wielded in the history of the medium – that’s probably the least important criteria for inclusion. How many people have been bored because a film was revolutionary and that is the core appeal of it’s reputation? For me, at least, a classic film is one that’s as fresh and vibrantly alive as the day it was made.
As for films that I would have included (my criteria is entertainment and art…. via the art of the film-making): Like Dennis’ selection, mine would have been way too conventional – which is why I loved your choices, they lead to new avenues to explore. I would, for instance, have chosen ‘King-size Canary’, ‘Duck Amuck’, UPA’s ‘the Tell-Tale Heart’ and the chilling stop-motion horror ‘The Sandman’ from 1992. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjgHbRrnjhU
What your take on them?
Anyway, your list has been a delight, thank you.
Thank you Bobby, and thanks for the comments during the countdown.
“How many people have been bored because a film was revolutionary and that is the core appeal of it’s reputation?”
Oh indeed. Maybe in the past I would have been automatically impressed by a film’s reputation or maybe even looked to dislike a film for those same reasons. Now I can watch all films on their own terms and come to a personal and unprejudiced judgement.
I like THE SANDMAN. I’d only seen a snippet until now. Great, realistic atmosphere based on fear of the dark / unknown. Striking design too. I like the others less but they are all good. It was hard in the end to make a final selection and to leave off films that had much to merit them.
I tried not to try and manufacture a good balance or mix.
Nicely done Stephen!
As you pointed out, to comment or not, and having the time to look at everything all around us seems to be limited.
As you know, I have purchased a few films that you mentioned and haven’t been let down, and for that I am appreciative!
Sadly, I’m out of the mainstream on “what” constitutes a “#1” anything. Regardless, a job well done and appreciate some of the new finds.
Cheers!
Thanks as always Coffee Messiah.
“As you know, I have purchased a few films that you mentioned and haven’t been let down, and for that I am appreciative!”
Great! It’s my pleasure. Merry Christmas.
Stephen, I hope you will continue to so articulately share your special discoveries here. What I particularly enjoyed about your series was its demonstrating that the “non-live-action” works can be acutely lively. Your range reminds me of Jacques Demy, transforming a Japanese comic strip, “The Rose of Versailles,” into a feature, Lady Oscar, the Marie Antoinette factors of which Burton installed in his Alice in Wonderland.
Thanks Jim. I’m always glad to share what impresses and inspires me (even if others can’t see where I’m coming from). Hopefully in the future I will be given the chance to write something for this site again.
Excellently done. While the films Pixar puts out are always excellent, it is tiring to see so many best animated film lists with a ton of Pixar in the top ten (and a Toy Story at number one) and little to no love for foreign animated films other than an obligatory Spirited Away nod. And yet I have one issue. Have you seen Ari Folman’s excellent Waltz with Bashir? I would put it in my top ten any day.
Thanks very much Zak.
“see so many best animated film lists with a ton of Pixar in the top ten (and a Toy Story at number one) and little to no love for foreign animated films other than an obligatory Spirited Away nod.”
Yes. Whether that’s the case or not it feels like a token foreign film can be dangled in front of us as some sort of proof that all have been considered.
I didn’t include WALTZ WITH BASHIR as I didn’t consider it as animation in the truest sense being that the animation is more just a second skin. Very little of it if anything is animated without rotoscoping. It comes down to gut feeling in the end and it feels qualitatively different to me.
Sorry for the late reply.