On January 14, 2016 the Oscar nominations were announced, which included Studio Ghibli’s WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE for Best Animated Feature Film.
MARNIE is the movie I’ll be rooting for the most at this year’s competition. It was a remarkable emotional driven story, coupled with visually stunning animation and beautiful music. A true masterpiece!
Even though Disney distributes Studio Ghibli’s movies, MARNIE was not a Hollywood produced film. In fact, Hollywood is not capable of producing movies like this anymore. If it doesn’t have explosions, super heroes (or a super villain) or talking animals in it, forget about it.
Instead we get mind-numbing, stupid stuff like this:
(Warning: Watching this trailer may make you brain dead or mad enough to punch your computer monitor! Proceed with caution.)
Demand better. After all, life is too short to be brain dead.
Dogs to the left of me/ Dogs to the right me/ and I’m stuck in the middle with a turkey… and when I say turkey, that means you!
After several plane trips and thousands of miles, I survived the hectic Christmas and New Year’s travel season. Whew! I miss the days of half-filled planes and having plenty of elbow and leg room to stretch out.
Now we’re crammed in like cattle. To further complicate the not-so-friendly skies is the ridiculous amount of dogs and cats traveling in the main cabin, both in carriers and as “service” animals.
On my last trip, I counted at least ten dogs boarding my flight, which included two service pooches. Are you kidding me? What’s wrong with people and how do we stop this?
If you own a dog, sorry, it’s inconvenient and costly. Suck it up and put your dog in puppy camp while your away instead of smuggling it onto the plane.
If you need a dog for emotional support, sorry, take a bus or train instead of polluting the plane with doggy dandruff.
Perhaps I’m overreacting to this unpleasant trend. At least people are not traveling with turkeys as service animals. Oh wait, someone recently did that already thanks to a doctor’s note. Thanks, doc, for being a quack… or is it a gobble?… or maybe it’s a ruff ruff?…
And don’t get me started on “pet relief” designated areas in airports. It’s tough enough to find a unpolluted restroom in the terminals. I can only imagine what these facilities are like inside. Pepé Le Pew would probably be right at home me thinks.
As I wrote my movie recommendation for WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE — Studio Ghibli’s most recent release — I was thinking about all of its movies I’ve seen and how I would rank them.
As you might know, Hayao Miyazaki, the master animator behind Studio Ghibli’s thirty years of success, retired in 2013 after releasing his final film, THE WIND RISES. (I hope he was bluffing about his retirement.)
In any event, WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (WMWT) is first production from Studio Ghibli where Miyazaki was not involved in any capacity. The helms have been turned over to Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Miyazaki’s protege) who directed the wonderful WMWT movie which I highly recommend.
Please note, remarkably there is not one Studio Ghibli a movie which I did not enjoy watching. Do not misconstrue the lower rankings to mean I did not like them. Instead, the higher rankings mean I’ll never get tired of watching these movies over and over, like WMWT which I’ve watched three times already. (Conversely, my comic book movie rankings include ones which I absolutely despise.)
WMWT is a tour de force like many of Studio Ghibli’s films. It’s a resumé of work which will never be repeated nor can ever be matched. (Sorry Pixar.) The degree of creativity, imagination and execution will be truly be a once-in-a-century happening.
Thank you Studio Ghibli for sharing your talents and producing movies which will inspire generations to come.
Starring (English cast): Hailee Steinfeld, Kiernan Shipka, John C. Reilly, Geena Davis, Kathy Bates Directed by: Hiromasa Yonebayashi Written by: Keiko Niwa, Masashi Ando and Hiromasa Yonebayashi Novel by: Joan G. Robinson Genre(s): Animation, Drama, Family
No spoilers here!
Studio Ghibli’s latest animated movie, WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (WMWT), is an extraordinary 2D animated piece of work; a masterpiece of visual storytelling with amazing and beautiful drawn/painted scenes. While I was watching it, it made my head dizzy to think about the thousands of hours of work it took to produce this movie. Director HIROMASA YONEBAYASHI spent over four years to complete the screenplay, storyboards and 80,000 frames of animation.
WMWT was one of the most emotional and heart-felt films I’ve seen this past decade and possibly, one of the most emotional movies I’ve ever seen. (I’m not going to admit I cried though.) I was totally blind-sided on what to expect with this movie.
Unlike American animators, Studio Ghibli knows how to make compelling animated family movies involving humans instead of monsters, robots and talking planes… not that there’s anything wrong with that. If you read my other blog postings, you know I love sci-fi. However, I’ve grown tired of seeing over two decades worth of 3D CGI animated movies being produced in the states. For me a good story takes precedent over visual effects and the meaningless eye candy jam packed into these types of animated movies. Quite frankly, I don’t take care how “real” an explosion looks in these 3D CGI animations.
I appreciate the effort, but it adds nothing in creating a captivating story. Additionally, these American animated movies suffer from ADD, and even ADHD — way too many edits and way too much excitement. The barrage of gimmicks flashed on the screen to keep our attention is quite appalling. A solid story, coupled with an emotional center you can root for, is what makes a great movie great.
As for WMWT, it is the farthest away from sci-fi, monsters or talking planes you can get. It’s about a girl named ANNA who’s a loner and suffers from asthma. One summer she visits relatives living a seaside town where the air is crisp and clean. During her stay, she befriends a mysterious blond-haired girl named MARNIE living in a vacant marsh house. Both are lonely souls.
And that’s all I am going to write to make sure no spoilers are revealed.
Before I sign off, I would like to acknowledge WMWT’s lovely musical score composed by TAKATSUGU MURAMATSU. Amazingly, at the time he wrote Anna’s theme and the rest of these musical cues, there was no artwork available; Only words on paper and script notes from director TAKATSUGU MURAMATSU. If you collect soundtracks like I do, I highly recommend adding this to your collection.
Also to note, there’s a song featured in the movie called “FINE ON THE OUTSIDE” written and performed by PRISCILLA AHN. Her smooth voice is near perfection and this song is a perfect compliment with WMWT’s emotional experience. Furthermore, there’s a companion album produced by her called “JUST KNOW I LOVE YOU”
which has tracks inspired by the movie. I highly recommend acguiring this album too.
With the retirement of master animator Hayao Miyazaki (announced in 2013), Studio Ghibli’s future is uncertain. If WMWT ends up being the last feature film produced by this studio, what a grand and beautiful way to end thirty years of producing masterpieces.
Starring: Colin Firth, Jonno Davies, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong Directed by: Matthew Vaughn Written by: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Comedy
No spoilers here!
It was a Friday night when I watched this and expected an enjoyable popcorn movie. Instead KINGSMAN turned out to be one of the most violent movies I’ve ever seen.
Considering I’ve seen thousands of movies, this was quite an achievement. The mean-spirited tone of this movie ruined any chance of the comic book, over-the-top violence of being fun to watch. Director MATTHEW VAUGHN’s movie KICK ASS also suffered from this same fate — ruined by violence.
There’s only one director working today who knows how to masterfully weave violence into a meaningful and captivating story and that’s QUENTIN TARANTINO… well maybe two directors. GEORGE MILLER’s MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was a masterpiece in visual storytelling.
I don’t care for violence in movies when it is not necessary to drive the story along. The use of violence in KINGSMAN was a lazy and uncreative way to tell this story. Furthermore, the moral of KINGSMAN seemed to be violence was the only way to solve issues.
As for the performances, COLIN FIRTH’s lifeless and dead-pan secret agent character was a snooze fest. However I did enjoy SAMUEL L. JACKSON’s character Valentine and MARK STRONG’s charater Merlin which made this movie somewhat watchable.
As I write this review, I heard KINGSMAN 2 is already in development. Great. Another achievement in a superior lack of originality awaits us.
