Listen, World 🌏 ⭐️🧚‍♀️

Cartoons and animations are different. Cartoons are thematically episodic and satirical. Animations are a superb vehicle for realizing the ideal to the real that human actors could have awkwardly contrived. Animations effortlessly manifest feelings and emotions to the maximum effect. Hence, my favorite animations. 😃

The Adventure of Sinbad: A story of young sailor Shinbad who decides to see the world with his sidekick Sarah, a bespelled princess in a bird’s hide. The opening song is still my number-one cartoon song of all time.

Anne of Green Gables, aka the red-haired Anne: This is the most faithful adaptation of the original novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This is one of the first animated films by Hayao Miyazaki during his time with Nippon Animation’s World Masterpiece Theater. Hayao and other artists who created this brilliant animated version traveled to Prince Edward Island and visited the story’s original setting. So, watching this animation alone will amount to reading the novel.

Kiki’s Delivery Service: Not every witch looks the same with a sullen face and unapproachable ambiance. Kiki is an unlikely witch in training who prepares herself to enter adulthood by moving with her black cat Jiji away from her beloved family and settling in a coastal city. She gets a job as an assistant at a bakery, delivering customers’ orders on a broom with Jigi. It’s a charming and thoughtful coming-of-age animation. Moreover, Kiki and I have things in common, such as similar temperaments, looks, and, most of all, our black cats.

Howl’s Moving Castle: The original story by Diana Wynn Jones is fantastically transpired by Hayao Miyazaki and his artists in this unforgettably mesmeric animated screenplay. Love is ubiquitous and universal. Forgiveness is abundant, and Magic is real. I am sure the original novel’s author would love to see this stunning visualization of her creation of the make-believe world with a standing ovation. Lost in translation? Not an iota.😉

In light of the above, I prefer animation translated from novels made by Japanese artists because they are skilled in detailing the characters and backgrounds of stories based upon the study of the original stories empowered by a wide arch of imaginativeness. 🤓✨🧚‍♀️