Jeremiah Lawson writes:
Howl is one of the lesser entries
I’ve got almost every Miyazaki film ever and Howl is one of the lesser entries, in my opinion. I think Howl is probably his most disappointing film and Ponyo was an improvement. Nausicaa as an anime doesn’t quite hold up for me but he made the film twenty-five years ago and it was one of his first films. Plus the manga in which he told the story he actually intended to tell is fantastic.
I’d say that his best films and most memorable films would be My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away in terms of theme and visual style. I personally like Kikki’s Delivery Service and the English dub had the advantage of being one of the last projects Phil Hartman worked on before his death. Of course it’s preferable to watch the films subtitled but if you can’t deal with huge amounts of reading those are the better films with more solid dubbing.
Miyazaki’s an aviation buff so if you ever want a cartoon that involves lots of planes Porco Rosso (aka Crimson Pig) is a quirky film that will play to that interest.
