Studio Ghibli for ~8 year old.

azith28

Last Christmas when i visited my family (I live across country), I did my usual thing where I give my parents all the DvD copies of movies I buy in combo packs (and keep the blue-rays since they dont have a BR player). One of them was my neighbor Toroto. I just spoke to my mom and she says one of my nephews just loves to watch the movie, toroto and the catbus of course. He also liked the previews which included ponyo and kiki's delivery service / howels moving castle.

So I'm going to pick up ponyo definately for him, ive seen that a bunch of times myself, and know its safe for his age range. I've seen howels and several other studio Ghibli movies so i know that they arent all safe for all age ranges. (I need to remember to tell my mom not to ever buy grave of the fireflies just because its got the same studio name on it).

I was trying to decide on another one. Howels and kiki's are probably safe sales for the age group but i dunno if kiki's is going to hold the interest of a little boy as much as toroto, I would probably say Princess Monoke is probably not a good selection for a kid but I havent seen the two newest ones yet, castle in the sky and the wind rises. Also i havent seen Naussica valley of the wind, From up on poppy hill or Tales of the earthsea. (I need to rectify that eventually).

I'm looking for suggestions in the Ghibli catalog for this age group besides Ponyo. Maybe spirited away?

Thanks

flowerhoney

Castle in the sky and Kiki's delivery service are great choices, they're both really fun movies and focus on kids. Why would Kiki be less interesting for a boy than Totoro? I mean don't get me wrong, Totoro is adorable, and I see his appeal. But Kiki is a really fun movie as well!

Castle in the sky has one scene that might be considered a little scary (robot goes crazy and destroys a fort) but no one gets hurt. Arrietty might be another good one, but I haven't seen it, I just know its based off a kids series (the borrowers) so I cant imagine it has anything bad in it

Naussica and wind rises are probably better for a slightly older kid, since the themes center really heavily on war and destruction. Castle in the sky has those themes too, but in a more child friendly way

Tofystedeth

Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, Howl's and Arrietty should all be fine.
I would definitely wait a bit for Princess Mononoke what with all the dismemberment.

Enc

You can't go wrong with The Cat Returns, Howl's Moving Castle (the book series its based on is quite good for reading aloud for bedtimes), Spirited Away, or Arrietty (which is a depiction of The Borrowers). All of these are great and targeted for that audience.

Castle in the Sky and Porco Rosso are pretty solid for most ages. Castle in the Sky is crazy long, but pretty suited to that age group. Porco Rosso may have a bit of opaque political concepts, but likely the child will just enjoy the funny pig man and his zany antics villains. Its fairly tame.

I bet you'll be surprised with Kiki, most of the younguns in my family liked it a lot, regardless of gender.

Tales from Earthsea is... well it's hit or miss. Parts of it are pretty intense and the message of the villain is very, very dark. It's mostly about death and doubt, and while it's plausibly decent for a child the villain still creeps the heck out of me as an adult.

Naussica and Mononoke, while excellent, are very violent and probably not appropriate. Grave of the Firefiles is a no, never, not ever for anyone that doesn't want to be depressed forever.

Ponyo... well its a kids film but when my wife and I watched it we felt it was pretty dark from an adult level. From a kid level probably not.

azith28

...Ponyo was dark???

Maybe im just a kid at heart.

Enc

Again, probably not for a kid! The fact that half the region was brutally flooded and caused to moon to crash towards earth made it darker than intended by fridge logic, even if the depictions of such are typically non-dangerous or really immediate to the kids that are the stars.

Caedwyr

For the 8 year old range, you can't go wrong with

Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Ponyo
Arietty
Kiki's Delivery Service

For slightly older (10 year old range)

Spirited Away
Porco Rosso
Howl's Moving Castle

Anzekay

Yeah I would strongly echo Arietty, Kikki's and Ponyo for a kid that age. The Cat Returns is also quite fun for kids! Avoid Mononoke for sure.

I'd actually recommend not going with Tales of Earthsea. Aside from being the one Ghibli film that is somewhat mediocre, I think the themes and tone of it are more of a teen-and-up sort of range.

Laputa is a pretty solid choice too but, again, it does have some slightly more mature themes than the other suggestions.

I'd recommend Spirited Away but when a friend of mine watched it with his 9 year old he had nightmares for a few days about some of the more... Unfortunate occurrences in the film. Probably leave that one for a few years.

mts

my 3 year old loved ponyo, Kiki doesn't hold his attention for the whole thing as I still havent gotten through it with him. That plus totoro were the ones I showed him.

So they should be fine for a 8 year old. Castle in the sky was too scary for him but he would probably be ok with it now

Cirira

If you stay away from Mononoke and Nausicaa I imagine you'd be fine.

The kids that age I know of love Ponyo, Kiki's and are slightly scared of Spirited Away but love it anyways. I think Arietty would probably be fine as well.

mts

Oh i know you are looking for Ghibli movies, but check out the 2 Cloudy with a chance of meatballs movies. They are fantastic

Artereis

Arrietty is great, I would definitely go with that one.

DarkPrimus

Princess Mononoke is the only Ghibli movie with a PG-13 rating for a reason.

Porco Rosso is only PG but it was intended for older audiences, so I don't think the story is as compelling to children.

Jam Warrior

My girl is 4 and we've tried most of the age appropriate Ghibli films on her.

I and she heartily recommend any and all of; Arrietty, Ponyo, Cat Returns, Laputa, Kiki, Spirited Away and Totoro.

Goatmon

Cat Returns is kid friendly and I've never gotten a bad review from anyone I've shown it to, including my nieces (One of whom was under 10 when first seeing it)

The most kid friendly that you haven't already shown him is most certainly Ponyo. That one's great for the tykes, and is super funny.

Spirited Away is exceptional.

Howl's is more dark than most Ghibli films, and a touch more violent than average, but is still pretty fun all around.

Mononoke is one of their most famous, but definitely not necessarily one you want to show an 8 year old.

Both my nieces watched it when it first hit cartoon network, years ago (When they were 8 and 11 respectively), so some kids are not averse to that level of violence, but caution is advised.

AngelHedgie

I'd also recommend avoiding the newest Ghibli film, The Wind Rises, as it deals with some serious and dark themes (it's based on the life of the aeronautical engineer who designed the Zero fighter.)