falling into the world of Studio Ghibli

When you don’t know what to blog about and you have Kiki’s Delivery Service on in the background, animated movies seem like a fun topic to discuss.  I love animated movies. As an adult I feel no shame in this, as some of the best movies I’ve ever watched are animated. I’m looking at you Disney’s Robin Hood and another personal favorite, Jack and The Cuckoo Clock Heart.

Now aside from Disney, I find Studio Ghibli to be the most consistently awesome for movies. (and yes I know Disney distributes them in america) I’ve not even seen them all, I came to the game very late and started probably in a weird place. The Cat Returns was my first Studio Ghibli movie, given to me by my brother. Then I went out of my way to find My Neighbor Totoro simply because I saw Totoro stuff all over Pinterest and I was intrigued.  When both my girls loved it as much as me, I knew I was on the path to finding all of them that I could. We also found Princess Mononoke which is beautiful even if a bit gross.  Then by sheer luck on my daughters part, we found Kiki’s Delivery Service because she had a stuffed Gigi, the cat that belongs to Kiki, even though we didn’t know that’s where the cat came from. We found it in a bin at the bookstore. And now both my girls love this movie. It has become the, if there is nothing else to do, we watch Kiki’s. My youngest daughter takes our broom and pretends to be Kiki. Albeit a clumsier version.

So, now we’re looking for the rest of the back catalog. I think Howl’s Moving Castle is next. Because, well, castles..So do you watch animated movies? At 9 or 90, they are made to make you smile.

Movie Monday

I’m still feeling a bit weird coming off vacation, not back on schedule yet, so I wasn’t sure what to write about today. Then I thought again about the amazing movie I had just watched and I figured this would be a good place to talk about it. So this is my first ever #MovieMonday

Not long back I saw a trailer for the most adorable looking animated film, Song Of The Sea, out of Ireland. Now I love animated movies, I have two daughters who I so conveniently use as an excuse to watch a multitude of them. But this one was all me. I was looking for it streaming and finally found it on Amazon Prime, I said a little Woo Hoo, and called my girls in to sit down and watch it with me. The youngest girl didn’t last but a few minutes, but my oldest was hooked. So was I. I knew it was going to be beautiful and it did not disappoint. Completely different than any other animated movie I’ve ever seen, it sucks you in with the immediate magic that you feel watching this pair of siblings. You go an adventure with them, and at points you will get frustrated, sad at others, and then finally, happy.

I could go on and on, but really I just hope you find the movie and let it speak for itself. It’s lovely. Magical. Both my 7 year old daughter and I gave it five stars.

(if you click on the movie poster it should bring you to the trailer.)