Whisper of the Heart

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Warmaster

Great Teacher
You know, right back when I got this anime I thought it was amazing, and right then I was perfectly happy to rank it as my fave Ghibli film alongside Mononoke, despite the fact it is almost utterly forgotten by most. However despite watching it to death at the time, I had not watched it for a while. Yesterday afternoon I watched it again though.

I'm still surprised at how much this film grabs me and doesn't want to let go. Perhaps it is because I am a writer as well, one who is still at the stage of 'finding ones style' even after 9 years and about 20 box files and many computer files full of it, but the film really is a heartwarming one. Though I should expect that from Miyazaki (he did write it, if not direct it) I certainly would not expect a film grounded more to reality like this from him. Kondo however does a wonderful job in bringing this charming story to life, It is a tragedy that he never had the chance to show what else he could do.

Sorry, I'm rambling. I still rank this as my joint best Ghibli film - which I know is probably a controversial statement considering how many good ones there are, but I just wanted to see what other people think here about this half forgotten classic.
 
I love this film. It's seriously one of my favourites as well. :D The director died before he could make any more films so this sadly stands as a bit of a one-off.

The dub tries hard with all the singing which must have been a bitch to translate, but was good as well imo. In terms of Ghibli films I'd say it's well up there, if the the best work from the studio. *worships* :lol:
 
I watched it last weekend and I thought it was magnificent.

Being a jaded and cynical 26-year-old male, a story of a young girl coming of age and falling in love for the first time should have me reaching for the sick bucket. But the deftness of characterization - these could be real people - makes the film an absolute joy from beginning to end. Ghibli are peerless when it comes to making films that are suitable for children without being condescending or relying on cheap stereotypes. Consequently their films can be enjoyed by people of all ages and degrees of world-weariness ;-)

It's also beautifully animated, with Ghibli's hallmark attention to small visual details. My new favourite Ghibli film, narrowly beating the similar Kiki's Delivery Service.
 
I was actually just considering watching a film this afternoon and this has been on my shelf for a while [along with a few other un-watched Ghibli's]~ this has spirred me on to watch it.
 
Ushio said:
I love this film. It's seriously one of my favourites as well. :D The director died before he could make any more films so this sadly stands as a bit of a one-off.

The dub tries hard with all the singing which must have been a bitch to translate, but was good as well imo. In terms of Ghibli films I'd say it's well up there, if the the best work from the studio. *worships* :lol:
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Not really actually. Since it was an English song that Susuku was translating into japanese, it would have been much harder first time round. Which leads of course to the pradoxical situation of Putting an English song which was origionally English across Japanese mouth movements :p
 
Whisper of the heart is an awesome movie and I would say its one of the best slice of life anime i've seen. Its so light and warm hearted.
The only other Ghibli movie I think beats it is Laputa but thats just me =P
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I watched it last weekend and I thought it was magnificent.

Being a jaded and cynical 26-year-old male, a story of a young girl coming of age and falling in love for the first time should have me reaching for the sick bucket. But the deftness of characterization - these could be real people - makes the film an absolute joy from beginning to end. Ghibli are peerless when it comes to making films that are suitable for children without being condescending or relying on cheap stereotypes. Consequently their films can be enjoyed by people of all ages and degrees of world-weariness ;-)

It's also beautifully animated, with Ghibli's hallmark attention to small visual details. My new favourite Ghibli film, narrowly beating the similar Kiki's Delivery Service.
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It is funny, The first Ghibli films I got were Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the sky (The older Buena Vista disks) While of the two Laputa should have got me, Kiki's instead was the one I watched to death in the spring of 2003 :oops: However that film, while still brilliant, doesn't now feel quite as much the whole package as Whisper does.
 
Just finished watching it and must say, i very much enjoyed it! It was a nice simple story [just what i needed after Paprika yesterday] and it was told wonderfully.

As always the art was fantastic. It's going up there as one of my favourite Ghiblis.

Oh yeah...and that clock was awesome!!
 
Maltos said:
Just finished watching it and must say, i very much enjoyed it! It was a nice simple story [just what i needed after Paprika yesterday] and it was told wonderfully.

As always the art was fantastic. It's going up there as one of my favourite Ghiblis.

Oh yeah...and that clock was awesome!!
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Don't forget to watch 'The Cat Returns' which is a 'sort of' sequel (It seems to be one of the stories Shizuku wrote)
 
I've seen The Cat Returns already. I quite enjoyed that too. I think though, although this had less of a fantasy feel to it, it was a nicer feel. The small touches like the clock were wonderful: i just love that enchanting element that surrounds most of the Ghibli films.

Another thing i forgot to mention was the dub. Having not watched the sub, i can't compare them; but i thought the dub was really well done and the voices fit the characters well.
 
Whisper of the Heart is awesome and is definitely one of my favourite studio Ghibl films along with Princess Mononoke,Laputa castle in the sky,my neighbour totoro and Kiki's delivery service
 
I was quite surprised at how good it was. One of the "sleeper hits" I think. I watched it on a whim (Studio Ghibli Archive, bitches! :p) and I'm quite glad I did.
 
Lupus Inu said:
Ushio said:
Lupus Inu said:
I didn't like it.
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Oh well.
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Indeed, it's not that the film itself was crap, I just couldn't appreciate it for what it was, not to mention the DVD cover was misleading.
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I'm glad you feel that way. It's rare to find people that can acknowledge quality, even if it doesn't click with them.

'Tis better to not like something but acknowledge it rather than like something but not appreciate it.
 
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