I love anime. I love classics like Ghost in The Shell, Akira, Ninja Scroll, Grave of the Fireflies, and much more. I was expecting something amazing like Spirited Away, but this movie is seriously the worst animated movie I have ever seen. I'll explain why.
This movie is pretty much the exact same story as The Simpsons' episode, "Lisa's First Word." Young boy gets a new baby sister, he becomes jealous because everything "was" about him, he treats the sister badly, and in the end he (kinda) learns a lessons.The only difference is that The Simpsons' episode is only 25 minutes, while this movie is stretch to 90 minutes. I have never fell asleep in a movie theater before, and I came so close to sleeping while watching this movie.
Ok, so the story is not very original, that is fine. It is all about the execution. Spirited Away is very similar to Alice in Wonderland, but the magic of Miyazaki made it very special. The worst thing about this movie is the main boy character, Kun. I asked myself while watching this, "Did the director really needed to make the main boy character the most annoying brat ever put in an animated movie?" 20 minutes in the movie I was actually telling myself, "I hope this kid doesn't act like this throughout the movie." Sad thing is he acts like a total unlikable brat for 85 minutes, and then the final 5 minutes we are suddenly supposed to accept the fact that this boy suddenly cares about his baby sister, who he often smacks on the head with a toy train out of anger. There is absolutely nothing to like about the main character, and there is NO STORY ARC. He complains about everything, yells at his parents, and throws toys everywhere just to make his parents angry. Ok, he wants attention, we get it! Geez.
Things in this movie just happens, there is no reason behind it. There is no reason why suddenly the dog that Kun's family has had for years can now just transform into an adult male and talk to Kun in his backyard. There is no reason why Kun suddenly meets his adult sister from the future. She just appears out of nowhere, without any explanation. At first I thought they were just a figure of Kun's imagination, but they are actually there. They walk around the house and hide from the father. There is no real story with them, it just suddenly ends. The movie just suddenly ends without finishing any story arcs.
There is no narrative structure with this movie at all. The best I can say is that things just randomly happen for no reason. This movie doesn't build up to anything, it is just scene 1, then scene 2, then scene 3, without having any real link between them.
Example~Kun hits baby sister, then a few days later his dog suddenly turns into a man, then Kun takes the tail and turns into a dog running around the house ~ then Kun suddenly meets his adult sister and she tells him to remove a statue ~ then suddenly Kun wants to learn to ride bike and complains ~ then suddenly he becomes a brat and wants to run away because he wanted to wear yellow instead of blue.
There is zero story structure with this horrible film. It all builds up to a short 2-3 minute where basically Kun is told that "Everything happens for a reason and that he needs to stop being a brat." Kun suddenly then makes a 180 degree character turn and becomes a good boy. What a cheap, lazy, lame, and horrible way to "try" to make the audience care about this character.
Another horrible thing about this movie that "almost" made me walk out of the theater was the voice acting for Kun. I saw the Japanese version. All he does is say "Otosan!!!! Okasan!!! Otosan!!! Okasan!!! (Father, Mother)" throughout this entire movie. I was pulling my hair out and had NEVER EVER had a theater experience like this in MY ENTIRE LIFE. I was tossing and turning on my chair, trying to hold my anger in. He complains and whines for the majority of his dialogue, and this Kun character is hands down the worst thing ever created from a Japanese studio. I rather listen to Navi from Zelda go "Hey Listen, Hey Listen, Hey Listen, Stop, Watch out," for 90 minutes than watch this movie again.
I DO NOT KNOW HOW THIS MOVIE GOT SUCH HIGH REVIEWS FROM CRITICS! I get that this director is legendary and did some great movies, but we have to judge things not from their line of work, but from what is in front of us. He might have made some of the greatest anime movies of all time, and now he has just made the very worst anime movie ever.
The only good thing about this movie is that the animation is superb, and there is a very cool looking "stop motion" creature at the tail end of the movie. There is no memorable music, and the characters are not interesting at all.
I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW BAD THIS MOVIE IS, and I give it a 2/10 just because of the nice animation. Honestly, this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life.
This movie is pretty much the exact same story as The Simpsons' episode, "Lisa's First Word." Young boy gets a new baby sister, he becomes jealous because everything "was" about him, he treats the sister badly, and in the end he (kinda) learns a lessons.The only difference is that The Simpsons' episode is only 25 minutes, while this movie is stretch to 90 minutes. I have never fell asleep in a movie theater before, and I came so close to sleeping while watching this movie.
Ok, so the story is not very original, that is fine. It is all about the execution. Spirited Away is very similar to Alice in Wonderland, but the magic of Miyazaki made it very special. The worst thing about this movie is the main boy character, Kun. I asked myself while watching this, "Did the director really needed to make the main boy character the most annoying brat ever put in an animated movie?" 20 minutes in the movie I was actually telling myself, "I hope this kid doesn't act like this throughout the movie." Sad thing is he acts like a total unlikable brat for 85 minutes, and then the final 5 minutes we are suddenly supposed to accept the fact that this boy suddenly cares about his baby sister, who he often smacks on the head with a toy train out of anger. There is absolutely nothing to like about the main character, and there is NO STORY ARC. He complains about everything, yells at his parents, and throws toys everywhere just to make his parents angry. Ok, he wants attention, we get it! Geez.
Things in this movie just happens, there is no reason behind it. There is no reason why suddenly the dog that Kun's family has had for years can now just transform into an adult male and talk to Kun in his backyard. There is no reason why Kun suddenly meets his adult sister from the future. She just appears out of nowhere, without any explanation. At first I thought they were just a figure of Kun's imagination, but they are actually there. They walk around the house and hide from the father. There is no real story with them, it just suddenly ends. The movie just suddenly ends without finishing any story arcs.
There is no narrative structure with this movie at all. The best I can say is that things just randomly happen for no reason. This movie doesn't build up to anything, it is just scene 1, then scene 2, then scene 3, without having any real link between them.
Example~Kun hits baby sister, then a few days later his dog suddenly turns into a man, then Kun takes the tail and turns into a dog running around the house ~ then Kun suddenly meets his adult sister and she tells him to remove a statue ~ then suddenly Kun wants to learn to ride bike and complains ~ then suddenly he becomes a brat and wants to run away because he wanted to wear yellow instead of blue.
There is zero story structure with this horrible film. It all builds up to a short 2-3 minute where basically Kun is told that "Everything happens for a reason and that he needs to stop being a brat." Kun suddenly then makes a 180 degree character turn and becomes a good boy. What a cheap, lazy, lame, and horrible way to "try" to make the audience care about this character.
Another horrible thing about this movie that "almost" made me walk out of the theater was the voice acting for Kun. I saw the Japanese version. All he does is say "Otosan!!!! Okasan!!! Otosan!!! Okasan!!! (Father, Mother)" throughout this entire movie. I was pulling my hair out and had NEVER EVER had a theater experience like this in MY ENTIRE LIFE. I was tossing and turning on my chair, trying to hold my anger in. He complains and whines for the majority of his dialogue, and this Kun character is hands down the worst thing ever created from a Japanese studio. I rather listen to Navi from Zelda go "Hey Listen, Hey Listen, Hey Listen, Stop, Watch out," for 90 minutes than watch this movie again.
I DO NOT KNOW HOW THIS MOVIE GOT SUCH HIGH REVIEWS FROM CRITICS! I get that this director is legendary and did some great movies, but we have to judge things not from their line of work, but from what is in front of us. He might have made some of the greatest anime movies of all time, and now he has just made the very worst anime movie ever.
The only good thing about this movie is that the animation is superb, and there is a very cool looking "stop motion" creature at the tail end of the movie. There is no memorable music, and the characters are not interesting at all.
I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW BAD THIS MOVIE IS, and I give it a 2/10 just because of the nice animation. Honestly, this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life.