Whenever anyone asks me what my favorite Miyazaki film is, I reply Spirited Away. I then quickly add that my favorite STUDIO GHIBLI film is Whispers of the Heart. Yup, that’s right. My favorite thing out of all the marvelous things Studio Ghibli has given us wasn’t touched by Miyazaki’s sainted hands (Not that he doesn’t deserve the status of saint-hooded-ness. Put the pitchforks down please). Whispers of the Heart isn’t flashy. There are no forest gods kicking around with young children, no mission for the greater good, and no message about society tucked away in the corners. It’s a rather quiet film. It would be a slice-of-life, coming of age thing that would have starred Molly Ringwold if it had been made in a different medium, country and decade.

There is just something about it that touches my heart. Maybe it’s being able to relate to a young girl who is just discovering that there is a world out there outside her school and books, remembering how terrifying a feeling it was to realize that you don’t know your place in that world and that you might never find out what it is. So maybe Whispers is questing story after all, but an internal one, one I’m sure we all remember or are currently going through. And it is a story about magic as well. Only it’s the everyday magic, the kind that is found by chasing cats down side streets, the kind found in antique shops and in the stories of old men. It’s also a story about the magic inside ourselves; that we all have fabulous fantasy worlds in us and sadly no one else will realize that about us.

The story is about a girl that is beginning her studies for the high school entrance exams. Her only main passions are reading and translating. She meets a boy who has read almost every book she has read in the local library and of course hates him on sight. It’s an entirely different story for him though, of course. They slowly become friends and then the cusp of more than friends. She’s impressed that he has a goal at such a young age, to become a violin maker and to study violins in Italy, which he will be doing in lieu of high school. This throws her into confusion over what her own goals should be and she loses herself for a time trying to figure out what she is doing with her life, damaging both her health and school work in the process. It seem silly to be worrying about it at 13, but if you think back I am sure you’ll remember a similar time in your life, staring up at your bedroom ceiling, sleepless, realizing you won’t be sheltered by mom and dad and school forever and that one day you’ll be On Your Own.

So yeah, a quiet story. One that never fails to make me cry when I watch it. I recommend this to anyone with a heart. It also has the best rendition of the song Country Roads I’ve ever heard. And the Cat Baron. He’s the star of the main character’s fantasy world. He was so nifty they made a movie just for him! I have my theories on that one, but I’ll save it for when I do an review on The Cat Returns.