This is, by default, the worst Studio Ghibli movie I have ever seen. I doubt it will stay that way, given that I'm finally digging through the entire Ghibli canon. I've heard bad things about Tales from Earthsea, though I will reserve final judgement for after I've seen it. But yes, this is the first Ghibli movie I've seen that I'm not giving a completely positive review to.
What it's about? A Japanese family and their wacky but mundane adventures. That's it. There's a stressed-out father, a quiet yet nagging mother, an overworked, nervous teenage boy, a cute little girl, and a wise yet snarky grandmother. Given this is Ghibli, you might expect these characters to be more than their stereotypes. But they're not, not really. Miyazaki is a wizard with characters. Takahata? Not so much. Even the one unquestionably great movie he made, Grave of the Fireflies, is not great because of its characters.
While it's fun hanging out with these characters, you never believe that they have anything truly interesting to say. They're the equivalent of the friends you invite to a party but would never think of coming to when you need emotional support. In real life, these people are fine. But they do not make for compelling film-viewing. Great characters make you feel like you know them in a deep and profound way. I could watch the characters in this film for the rest of my life and never feel that way toward them. And that is a big fault considering what kind of film this is.
There is not even a plot. The film is just a series of thinly connected vignettes. While this fits the film's comic-strip-inspired art style, it is a lot like that art style in that it is an interesting choice and one that I respect, but it is not necessarily a good choice. Takahata's intention was to give us an inside into the family life of these characters, but as these characters are not interesting, it does not really work. The entire film feels like a collection of filler that was taken out of a better, more interesting movie.
Some of the vignettes would be fairly funny on their own right as short films, but tons of them connected into a full-length movie makes it feel jumbled and boring. There are some threads that were clearly intended to be developed, but never paid off. There some characters that were explored too little, some characters that were explored too much, and some characters that were explored in the wrong ways. The whole film is disjointed. I don't hate it, and there is a lot of good stuff in it, but it's too bland and flaccid for me to like.
My biggest complaint is how it never builds to anything resembling a complex. Even in a slice-of-life movie like this, there should be some kind of build-up, some indication that the film is going somewhere, even if it's not somewhere traditionally interesting. Boyhood was especially good in this regard. This film just goes along on its merry way, then just wraps up. We talk about films having good pacing or bad pacing, but this film doesn't have pacing. This isn't horrible, but it robs the story of what emotional heft it would have had.
Formatted differently and under different hands, this film could have been great. Instead, it's stuck at 'merely good'.
What it's about? A Japanese family and their wacky but mundane adventures. That's it. There's a stressed-out father, a quiet yet nagging mother, an overworked, nervous teenage boy, a cute little girl, and a wise yet snarky grandmother. Given this is Ghibli, you might expect these characters to be more than their stereotypes. But they're not, not really. Miyazaki is a wizard with characters. Takahata? Not so much. Even the one unquestionably great movie he made, Grave of the Fireflies, is not great because of its characters.
While it's fun hanging out with these characters, you never believe that they have anything truly interesting to say. They're the equivalent of the friends you invite to a party but would never think of coming to when you need emotional support. In real life, these people are fine. But they do not make for compelling film-viewing. Great characters make you feel like you know them in a deep and profound way. I could watch the characters in this film for the rest of my life and never feel that way toward them. And that is a big fault considering what kind of film this is.
There is not even a plot. The film is just a series of thinly connected vignettes. While this fits the film's comic-strip-inspired art style, it is a lot like that art style in that it is an interesting choice and one that I respect, but it is not necessarily a good choice. Takahata's intention was to give us an inside into the family life of these characters, but as these characters are not interesting, it does not really work. The entire film feels like a collection of filler that was taken out of a better, more interesting movie.
Some of the vignettes would be fairly funny on their own right as short films, but tons of them connected into a full-length movie makes it feel jumbled and boring. There are some threads that were clearly intended to be developed, but never paid off. There some characters that were explored too little, some characters that were explored too much, and some characters that were explored in the wrong ways. The whole film is disjointed. I don't hate it, and there is a lot of good stuff in it, but it's too bland and flaccid for me to like.
My biggest complaint is how it never builds to anything resembling a complex. Even in a slice-of-life movie like this, there should be some kind of build-up, some indication that the film is going somewhere, even if it's not somewhere traditionally interesting. Boyhood was especially good in this regard. This film just goes along on its merry way, then just wraps up. We talk about films having good pacing or bad pacing, but this film doesn't have pacing. This isn't horrible, but it robs the story of what emotional heft it would have had.
Formatted differently and under different hands, this film could have been great. Instead, it's stuck at 'merely good'.