Why 3D Ghibli Doesn't Work

what’s your favorite ghibli movie???

I always heard that ghibli actions look like how things feel. The giant tears looks like how it feels to be crying uncontrollably, the food looks like how it smells and tastes

We need to stop thinking of 3D animation as the successor to 2D. They are different mediums, and they have their time and place. This studio is so cherished because we appreciate their dedication to detail in each frame. And 2D animation, in my opinion, gives the artists so much more freedom.

what they really lack is the hair expanding every time something incredible is happening

This movie looks more like a netflix series than a Studio Ghibli movie.

i feel kind of bad for goro miyazaki. everyone criticizes him so hard for not being the same as his father. that expectation must take a toll on his life

My biggest disappointment with this movie is how, despite it being a cgi movie, they don’t take full advantage of the medium. A film like Ratatouille can make the culinary dishes look so tasty and vibrant, so don’t understand why they would go for a more realistic and bland looking food for this clearly cartoony setting. CGI is also great at applying cloth and hair physics, like in any Pixar movie or the recent Lupin the 3rd cgi movie. This just feels like a 2d movie that was simply remade with a CGI coat of paint. So disappointing. Also, the story sucks.

The hand drawn animation is what made me obsessed with ghibli movies since the first time I watched spirited away. It being in 3D takes all the life, and what made it magical all away

When he said "a 2d character in ghibli movie can stare into space without moving can make me cry for 2hours " Gosh you just spoke my mind

I can’t imagine having a man as extremely well known and revered as Miyazaki as my dad and trying to reach his expectations. It has to be crippling.

it looks like a Ghibli scene remake you'd find on YouTube lmao; it seems so lifeless compared to 2-D

2D animator here!! I think the reason why the 3D style just doesn't work for Ghibli is because in this point in time, it seems like the studio is trying to find that sweet spot between maintaining their signature style while also pushing the limits of the medium they're working in. 3D animation has always been a difficult thing for me to work with because you're constantly fighting between cartoony and realism. The entire movie feels like a struggle between the two styles, whereas with Ghibli's 2D style, they know what works for them and so do we, as viewers. I do feel like some people tend to discredit 2D animation because it's been largely used for a younger audience (especially in Western media), but there are some things that translate so much better in 2D then it does in 3D or CGI, because our brains are constantly trying to translate 3D to realism that fits within our real, physical world. Pixar displays insanely realistic renders and props that could easily be shoved into reality and fit perfectly, but then you have their characters with obviously disproportionate features that would look so out of place because we know that's not how people look in real life. You look at hand-drawn fire and it moves and looks like fire, but you know that's not what /real/ fire looks like. Idk, some food for thought, but personally that's why I like 2D because it's kind of on its own level of perception that just...works?

The 3D animation quality is also straight-to-DVD-tier.

karsten: "ghibli food looks better than real food" me who's been obsessed with the dumplings in spirited away since i was 7: correct

can we popularize 2D animation again?? why does everything have to evolve to become 3D and CGI, why can't some mediums just stay the same.

i think what makes ghibli’s 2D animation so great is that every frame feels like a piece of art. when you get into 3D animation, it loses that feeling of stepping into a painting, where someone has created each background, each person and object by hand. it feels impersonal.

"3d anime was a mistake." - Hayao Miyazaki

I really wish studio ghibli immediately come back to hand drawn animation, it's one of the reasons that makes them special.

One of the things I noticed with this film is the lack of wind. There's so much wind in other ghibli movies. I think this project was doomed from the start. If they had done 3d animation with the same immersive detail and movement as their 2d films, it could fall into the uncanny valley.

From the CGI artist perspective, the film itself is student quality.