Just enjoyed this movie with my 2-year old son, and we both loved it. It's so refreshing with a story that doesn't follow the standard Disney-template. I can't even recall that Disney has ever produced a movie without an antagonist which gets his or her butt kicked in the end.
Hopefully the growing popularity of Miyazaki's works in the western world pushes Disney to think outside of the box.
Alice in Wonderland (1951). Plenty of odd characters, but the only aggressive one (The Queen of Hearts) is not an actual threat to the heroine.
Fantasia (1940), although it does have dread elements (Bald Mountain, the rising water inn The Sorcerer's Apprentice).
Is there a baddie in Pinnocchio? I don't mean just naughty boys, but a villain who forces plot turns.
My Neighbor Totoro doesn't seem to have any bad guys even though like this movie I don't think it was created by Disney.
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Of course Pinnocchio has a villain: Stromboli!
I think that a primary difference between Disney and movies by Miyazaki is that the villains in Disney remain villains (usually), while in Miyazaki movies the 'baddies' get a chance to grow up.
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I don't think Disney ever produced any of the Ghibli-movies, just obtained the rights to distribute them outside of Japan. So Disney had nothing to do with the creative process. Give credit where it's due. Disney aren't the innovators here.
shareits the japanese way tho with their animated storys, disney always have a villien in some small part while the japanese don't tend to beleave in animated storys that anyone is either bad or good they just are, theres characters that seem bad but they always have a reason or find that their ways are wrong, take Howls moving castle in that one the bad evil witch turns to be just a sad lonely women who went the wrong way in life! who finds the truth bout herself!!
they have their own set story lines seperate! x
I think many of the japanese stories also have the typical villain-plot. This film is more of an exception.
I've got to agree with the original poster. It is sooo refreshing to see that formula avoided. Even as I was watching it, I was thinking to myself: Please don't do down that road.
As much as I love pixar films nearly every one of them does it.
Bolt?
sharebambi doesn't really have a bad guy.
shareYea even Pixar movies, which tend to do things really well, always have a bad guy or two. I was really hoping Wall-E would be different.
A villain can make your hero better though. Rising to the challenge to fight that villain. Though, it's great to see life and other challenges be the obstacle in the heroes path, and they still seem like a great hero.
Brother Bear had kind of a twist on the villain. As the villain is actually a good guy.
Finding Nemo did a bit differently too. The dentist might be seen as a villain, but to the animals, he's more a force of nature, just like the waves or anything else. They played around with predatory animals pretty well too.
I think Pixar movies really try to balance the idea of character driven stories like Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro (just to name a few) with typical plot driven stories we see so abundantly in the US. I think that if Pixar came out with a completely character driven story people would criticize it with some of the comments you seen on the Totoro boards about their being no real plot. If you really mapped out the plot you would see that it is all based on the development of the characters just like Kiki. However, as John Lassater is a HUGE HUGE fan of Miyazaki, I think he tries to bring the charm of character driven stories while keeping some of the traditional plot driven elements we seem to think are so key to a plot here in the US.
shareI can't remember if it was part of Disney at the time but Pixar's 'Finding Nemo' doesn't have a real villain.
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