A Japanese animated comedy directed by Isao Takahata.
A Japanese family consists of the mother, father, grandmother, son and daughter. They live in an ordinary city and have sitcom style problems.
If Crayon Shin Chan did not have crude humor, this is what it would be. That being said, I liked this film. The animation style was extremely simplified to mimic a child's drawing. According to Wikipedia, the entire film was painted entirely in computers. There were many small plots which had little to do with one another, but what this did was develop the characters excellently. The vignette plots all focused on universal subjects in family life like neighborhood noise, a lost child, a lost ball, food decisions and forgetting items. The only negative remarks that I can make are that the daughter was under-featured and the all-important question: whose neighbors are they? I did not see any vignettes which included neighbors. I rate this awesome because of animation style and humor. Watch it!
A Japanese animated drama directed by Isao Takahata, starring Chloe Grace Mortez, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Lucy Liu, George Segal, James Marsden, Oliver Platt, Dean Cain, Beau Bridges and John Cho.
A woodcutter finds a miniature princess in the forest and brings her home to his wife. The princess turns into a baby and begins growing at a rapid pace. The woodcutter then finds gold and silks in the same forest and decides to make the girl a princess. After building a mansion for her in the capitol, a tutor is hired and suitors come and ask to marry the princess.
I'm writing about this movie because the animation was so good. As with most Miyazaki, Takahata and Ghibli films, the plot and characters were developed very well. There are background details and some serious "re-watch quality". There is also the common theme in these films of simple things being better and a return to nature. As you can see by the image above, the whole film was animated in a style similar to traditional Asian paintings. The fact that this is how the whole film was done explains the 49.3 million dollar budget. What I don't get is it only grossing 24.2 million dollars in the box office. It seems like something this good would have made more money than was spent on it. This is top shelf animation and I rate it awesome. Watch it!
A Japanese animated fantasy directed by Isao Takahata, starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
The forest home of raccoons is being destroyed by humans building homes. The raccoons try to use their shapeshifting abilities to make the humans leave.
I'm writing about this film for a variety of reasons. I found the plot to be engaging and interesting, but tragic. Although the plot was so good, the characters were relatively shallow and a "narrator voice" filled in the story. Testicles of the tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs) play a major role in folklore and were included in the film. All of the male raccoons had them and some transformed their ballsacks for other uses. Balls were mentioned in the dialogue and songs of the original Japanese version and the English subtitles, but not the English audio. There were also breasts on the female raccoons and even a topless scene. I liked the environmental theme or moral of the film because it is so true. Human city development really is destroying the homes of animals. Finally, I just plain like the film. Being Studio Ghibli and having a good plot guarantees that. I rate this best. Watch it!
A Japanese animated drama directed by Isao Takahata.
During World War 2, a boy and his younger sister lose their home and mother in a bombing. They try to stay with an aunt, but she mistreats them and they move into an abandoned shelter by a river.
I think this is one of the saddest movies ever made. It was all like the ending of SLC Punk! (1998). Being Studio Ghibli, the animation was amazing. The backgrounds were incredibly detailed and the characters moved naturally. I think the writing and dialogue were good as well. Because it's so sad, I don't like watching it very frequently. However, it is an amazing work of art. I rate this good for production value and writing.
