What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

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illusivepunk
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What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by illusivepunk » Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:25 pm

One of the reasons I initially loved this film was the enchanting melancholy, the balance of the supernatural and the mundane, the charm of two children meeting in a suburban fairytale - all aspects that made me compare this film to those made by one of my favourite film studios of all time.

If you don't know them, Studio Ghibli are a film studio in Japan famous for their incredibly beautiful, enchanting animated films. They are comparable easily to Disney, but unlike Disney they've never shied away from dealing with extremely mature topics - "Grave of the Fireflies" deals with orphans in WW2 Japan, and "Princess Mononoke" is a violent, turbulent supernatural epic set in the feudal samurai era. They can tell powerful stories about pains we all deal with, in either a mundane or fantastical setting.

So what if Studio Ghibli come across this film and book, and decided they wanted to have a crack at adapting it? We know that they have a tendency of doing this, since some of their last few major films have been adaptations of books. I can almost envisage the beautiful renderings of the Swedish suburbs, the snow falling from the heavens as Oskar and Eli sit on the jungle gym in the rubik's cube scene. How do you think they would do, and what would they leave out?

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drakkar
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by drakkar » Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:30 pm

I'm in!
Spirited Away is one of my favourite films, and in a strange way the spirit of LTROI reminds me of it.. :)
For the heart life is simple. It beats as long as it can.
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EEA
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by EEA » Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:48 pm

It would be cool. Let The Right One In as I was watching it reminded me of Grave of the Fireflies after I had finish watching it.
Spirited Away is also one of my favorite animated movies. :)

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ofelia
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by ofelia » Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:22 am

Satoshi Kon could have done it pretty wonderfully too, I imagine. His film Perfect Blue is a great combination of beauty/innocence and extreme violence/horror. Animation for adults. Somebody like that could probably make a great adaptation.

I feel like if Miyazaki Hayao were to take on LTROI it would end up not looking very much like LTROI at all, plot wise; look at Howl's Moving Castle :D . But it would be sure to be visually lovely, as well as very different from LTROI and LMI. It would probably be, like Spirited Away, a combination of the visually complex and of very simple images. I'm reminded of this picture:
http://www.let-the-right-one-in.com/for ... =13&t=4121
I'd like to see something along the lines of that kind of simplicity, it would suit the story.
Miyazaki is known for having strong female characters who don't conform, although they are usually very feminine; it would be interesting to see how he'd take on someone like Eli.

An animated version would also be a way to get around some of the darker content that would be difficult to film with a child actor; not that I would want everything from the book to be in any film version. And maybe they could have a boy do Eli's voice acting.

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gattoparde59
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by gattoparde59 » Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:42 am

I would love to see a Japanese animated version of this story, or Handling the Undead, or Harbour. Imagine what that would look like if it was faithful to the novel.

I see Ghibli as primarily a maker of children's films, even if they take on far more serious subjects than Americans would do. (I watch Totoro at least once a year :) )Princess Mononoke was pretty dark and disturbing, but not nearly as dark as Let the Right One In, imho.

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

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CyberGhostface
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by CyberGhostface » Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:31 pm

Now there's a remake I wouldn't mind seeing.
No banaaaanas?

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Makalli
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by Makalli » Sun Jan 06, 2013 11:27 pm

gattoparde59 wrote:I see Ghibli as primarily a maker of children's films, even if they take on far more serious subjects than Americans would do. (I watch Totoro at least once a year :) )Princess Mononoke was pretty dark and disturbing, but not nearly as dark as Let the Right One In, imho.
I could not have watched Grave of the Fireflies as a kid, and I wouldn't recommend it to any child. That film is soul destroyingly sad. :cry:
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Jameron
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by Jameron » Mon Jan 07, 2013 1:40 am

Makalli wrote:
gattoparde59 wrote:I see Ghibli as primarily a maker of children's films, even if they take on far more serious subjects than Americans would do. (I watch Totoro at least once a year :) )Princess Mononoke was pretty dark and disturbing, but not nearly as dark as Let the Right One In, imho.
I could not have watched Grave of the Fireflies as a kid, and I wouldn't recommend it to any child. That film is soul destroyingly sad. :cry:
I know man, Grave of the Fireflies was just heartbreaking ... I loved it.

.

I could see that there is potential to produce an excellent animated version of Let The Right One In, but one question springs to mind, would they relocate the story to Japan? I'm not sure I'd be taken by that idea, but it all depends on the finished product.

.
"For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was … himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love."

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lombano
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by lombano » Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:44 am

Well, I definitely don't consider Grave of the Fireflies a children's film, though on the other hand the same goes for the more optimistic LTROI. I'm not familiar with their other works, but based on Grave of the Fireflies I wouldn't mind a remake by them.
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Hassildor
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Re: What if there was a Studio Ghibli adaptation?

Post by Hassildor » Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:53 pm

I would love to see a Studio Ghibli adaptation of LTROI. In fact, they're one of the only studios right now that I think could do the original tale justice and provide an interesting new spin on it. I would of course want it to be directed by Miyazaki, but agree that Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies) would also do an amazing job!

My only concern would be for the integrity of the original story. It would be hard to even compare Tales from Earthsea to the books on which it was based (I assume the same is true of Howl's Moving Castle, but I haven't read the book). But regardless of how the story could be altered, it certainly wouldn't be a Let Me In. ;)

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