Animation

Ever since the late-70's and I discovered Gatchaman (called Battle of the Planets in America), I fell in love with Japanese animation, or anime as it is called. There is such a big difference between cartoons in the US and Japan, even in the attitude people have towards it.

In the US cartoons are for children and made to appeal to them in every way; even the adult cartoons like Family Guy are aimed towards people with immature senses of humor (like me). In Japan they are totally different. They have cartoons for children, too; but the cartoons for adults could rival the most dramatic American movies in content.

Try anime like Grave of the Fireflies or Spirited Away (whose movie poster is displayed here) for great examples of how animation should be done, totally serious and totally dramatic. I double dog dare you not to cry at some point while watching  Grave of the Fireflies that movie makes any Hollywood drama seem like Seinfeld.

The only American made animation that can come close are Disney movies. As a matter of fact, Disney bought the rights to distribute many of the most popular Japanese anime movies in the US, so please check out any movie by Hayao Miyazaki. He is literally the Walt Disney of Japan and all of his movies are amazing, I can't recommend them enough. John Lasseter from Pixar Studios is always going on and on about how great Miyazaki and his movies are.

So use Kiki's Delivery Service to get you Spirited Away to the Castle in the Sky where you'll meet with Princess Mononoke.

(You don't get the joke now...)