2020 Blindspot Pick #4: Pom Poko (1994)

Tags

Animation, Anime, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

Nature weeps “Farewell”
As mankind bids it “Hello.”
Neither understands.
_____________________

Some may look at the fact that I’m only reviewing #4 of my list of 12 Blindspots for the year in October as a sign of being way behind and perhaps despair because of it. I prefer to think, “Wow, I’ll have such a great sprint of good movies around the holidays!” Either way, I’m finally returning to my Blindspot series with Studio Ghibli’s Pom Poko.

I’m very fond of the majority of the studio’s work, including the heartrending Grave of the Fireflies from the same director, but Pom Poko has never gotten much of a spotlight. Even in montages of various Ghibli movies, Pom Poko is pretty much relegated to one notable scene: a comical battle between two warring tribes of tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs), which happens to be one of the very first scenes in the film. The rest of the movie was a mystery to me, so I was quite curious to see the rest of the story. Now that I have, I can see why it’s counted among the B-list of Ghibli classics, with the studio’s trademark charm and weirdness being overextended by length and repetition.

From the humorous battle scene on, the film often plays like a mythological nature documentary, explaining the many eccentricities of tanuki pulled straight from Japanese legend: their mischievous antics, shapeshifting abilities, penchant for parties, belly drumming, and…um, their prominent testicles. Yeah, more than anything else, that last point is probably why Pom Poko never hit it off in America. Folk tales tell of the many uses tanuki have for their shapeshifting male parts, and the movie runs with that (the English dub using the euphemistic “raccoon pouch”) as they’re shown expanding their “pouches” into parachutes and weapons. Just writing this feels bizarre, but hey, myths can be weird, especially considering raccoon dogs are a real species.

As with many other Ghibli films, the story is an environmentalist fable, detailing the loss of the tanuki’s forest habitat as man and technology encroach further and further. (I find it interesting that the comic strip Over the Hedge debuted just a year after this film with a similar basic premise.) Much of the movie is spent with the creatures attempting to fight back, leading to some highly entertaining sections where they use their supernatural abilities to scare the unsuspecting humans away. However, from the moment they realize mankind’s threat to the point of no return, there are far too many scenes of the leaders debating their strategy, weighing their options, and trying the same things repeatedly. At nearly two hours, I felt like the film could have easily shed a half hour with little loss.

Director Isao Takahata, Miyazaki’s compatriot in heading the studio’s early releases, won my heart with Grave of the Fireflies, but nothing quite compares with that tragic masterpiece. Pom Poko is at least a visual treat, and the character animation swings wildly in depicting the tanuki as realistic animals, anthropomorphic bipeds, or cartoony caricatures, depending on the mood of the scene. The English dub (which Americanizes the tanuki as just “raccoons”) also boasts a talented voice cast, including Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Clancy Brown, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, and J.K. Simmons.

Aside from Spirited Away, Pom Poko might be the Ghibli film most wedded to Japanese culture; one extended scene has a master tanuki conjuring a horde of illusory yokai (Japanese spirits) to scare the humans, referencing stories that are no doubt far more familiar to Japanese audiences than Western ones. Plus, despite its cartoonish aspects, its themes and a few story elements are geared for somewhat older audiences compared to the more kid-friendly Ghibli options. Pom Poko is weird, overlong, creative, frequently delightful, wacky, and even bittersweet by the ending. It’s not likely to become a favorite, but I’m glad to have seen another entry from a legendary studio.

Best line: (Narrator, with a line you’ll never find in any other film) “They used their balls as weapons in a brave kamikaze attack.”

Rank:  Honorable Mention

© 2020 S.G. Liput
701 Followers and Counting!

I Lost My Body (2019)

Tags

Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Foreign, Romance

A hand without a body or a man without a hand –
Which would be more piteous or prone to reprimand?
The hand is guiltless, lacking fault; its owner bears the blame
Of entering a situation liable to maim.
The hand is helpless, lacking mind; its owner bears the thought
That they may wish to clap and clasp two hands and yet cannot.
The hand is listless, lacking will; its owner bears the task
Of moving on and living life behind a fragile mask.

The former owner bears so much, yet his lot I’d prefer
Than that poor hand that cannot even know how things once were.
Pity the hand but love the stump and all to it attached.
At bouncing back from tragedy, we humans are unmatched.
____________________________

Rating: TV-MA (should be PG-13)

I take the Best Animated Feature Oscar perhaps more seriously than others do. After superb anime films like Your Name or Maquia have been spurned in recent years, I take notice when the Academy deems other foreign films worthy of the honor of nomination. The seventh French production to earn such a nomination was last year’s I Lost My Body, a strangely poetic meditation on loss that happens to involve a severed hand.

At first, we don’t know how the severed hand came to be, though; the film starts out with the appendage “waking up” in the macabre fridge of a hospital and figuring out how to walk and jump with its fingers, like a more mobile Thing from The Addams Family. Cut then to the past and sullen pizza delivery guy Naoufel (Dev Patel in the quite good English dub), whose childhood of joy and trauma is recounted in flashback throughout the film. In failing to deliver a pizza, he becomes acquainted with a librarian named Gabrielle (Alia Shawkat) and takes up a job as a woodworker to get closer to her. Edited into this more grounded story, Naoufel’s future hand (which is evident from a scar they both have) makes its way across Paris in search of its owner.

It’s hard to call any movie about an animate severed hand anything but strange and morbid, but I Lost My Body treats it as an extended metaphor, which, as I said before, grows surprisingly poetic, heightened by a memorably haunting score. The close calls of the hand’s travels across a dangerous urban landscape provide thrilling visuals, while Naoufel’s struggles offer bittersweet human drama. Naturally, the film’s ultimate lead-up is to how the hand and its owner were separated, which is both cringeworthy and deeply symbolic.As an art film that happens to be animated, I Lost My Body’s main drawback for me is how open-ended it is, not offering much closure beyond what viewers choose to interpret. What does the hand represent? It’s up to you, I suppose. At one point, Naoufel is criticized for not knowing another character is sick and accused of not truly caring; the film never mentions it again, so I guess the film doesn’t care much either. Despite this, I’ve often said that I enjoy animations that can delve into mature themes without wallowing in mature content, and I Lost My Body fits that laudable mold. Amid last year’s nominations, Missing Link was the weak link that should have been replaced last year, preferably with Weathering with You; while imperfect, I Lost My Body is a worthy nominee.

Best line: (Gabrielle) “Once you’ve dribbled past fate, what do you do?”
(Naoufel) “You try to keep away from it. You run blindly… and keep your fingers crossed.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
697 Followers and Counting

 

Frozen II (2019)

Tags

Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical

I wish life were more like the movies that end with a swift fade to black,
Where characters make their departures while still in their glory and prime,
Where stories have definite endings and rarely, if ever, come back.
(Unless they accumulate money; then it’s only a matter of time.)

I wonder sometimes where my own life would warrant a “Cut!” and a “Print!”
I’m working my way to a climax, that’s hopefully not when I die.
I wonder if I’m stuck in filler and wish God would give me a hint.
I trust that I’ll know when I see it and hope that it will satisfy.
_______________________

MPA rating: PG

I liked Frozen when it came out in 2013. It’s on my Top 365 movie list. I watched it in the theater and still think “Let It Go” is one of the best movie songs from the last decade. Yet I did put it on my Top Twelve List of Overrated Movies, not because it was bad but because it was overexposed. Disney milked the merchandise so much that it was hard to tell whether the Frozen products ever really went away before the Frozen 2 merch took their place. So it’s easy to believe that Frozen 2 was made solely with profit in mind, but even if that’s the case, it deserves a fair shake and appraisal on its own merits. And I must say I enjoyed this sequel about as much as the first. Like its predecessor, it’s not above criticism, but it’s an enjoyable return to the franchise.

Peace has returned to Arendelle with Elsa (Idina Menzel) as queen, but a strange voice reaches out to her, drawing her to the enchanted forest to the north. And, of course, sister Anna (Kristen Bell), her boyfriend Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), Sven the reindeer, and Olaf the snowman (Josh Gad) are right at her side. The plot of Frozen 2 seems to be the aspect most criticized, and indeed it is rather convoluted with flashbacks, mysteries, and vague explanations that can boil down to a single line of dialogue and thus aren’t answered as clearly as they could have been. Even so, cheap cash-ins don’t usually have this kind of laudable ambition, so I still appreciated how the world and lore of Frozen were expanded, even if its parallels to real-world issues are a bit half-baked. Oh, and did anyone else think the ending is suspiciously similar to Ralph Breaks the Internet? Just sayin’.

But come now, who watched Frozen for the plot? “Let It Go” was clearly the biggest draw, so how does the soundtrack compare? The songs of Frozen 2 may not seem as good at first, but I’ve found they get better with repetition. (Yes, I’ve listened to the soundtrack at work.) “Into the Unknown” is the most “Let It Go”-ish belter for Menzel and the only one nominated for the Best Song Academy Award, and I think it was robbed at the Oscars. But “Show Yourself” has even greater power, especially in the context of the film, while “Some Things Never Change” and “The Next Right Thing” are underappreciated gems, especially the latter for its surprisingly deep and relatable lyrics. The animation at least is one aspect that is clearly on par or better than the original; from the horse spirit made of water to the gorgeous fall foliage, the animation is as lovely as any Disney movie yet. I mean, look at this art!

Frozen 2 may not have been able to replicate the original’s awards, not even being nominated for Best Animated Feature (but neither was Weathering with You, so it’s in good company), but it did become the highest-grossing animated film ever, assuming you don’t count that Lion King remake. I still consider Elsa a bit too lacking in personality, but both films are a welcome return to the classic princess genre that so defined the Disney Renaissance of the ‘90s, with their strong female leads and lovable sidekicks. (Olaf once again gets the funniest scenes.) Plus, as a big fan of Norwegian singer Aurora, I was thrilled that she got such high-profile exposure being featured as “The Voice” in the film and “Into the Unknown,” even if her role is just four notes. Time will tell if Frozen 2 has the same kind of staying power that its predecessor had, but it’s a good way to end Disney Animation’s resurgence in the 2010s. Let’s hope it will continue into the next decade.

Best line: (Olaf; the irony is strong with this one) “Tell me, you’re older, and thus all-knowing; do you ever worry about the notion that nothing is permanent?”   (Anna) “Uh, no.”   (Olaf) “Really? Wow, I can’t wait until I’ve aged just like you, so I don’t have to worry about important things.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining the first Frozen)

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
697 Followers and Counting

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

Tags

Action, Animation, Comedy, Dreamworks, Family, Fantasy

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem praising pets, so I went a bit mythological to extol a dragon as a pet.)

Cats are cute and dogs are dear,
And yet the pet without a peer
Is easily the rarest kind,
The least beloved and most maligned,
The lizards born of myth and lore
That few have ever seen before,
Who ride the winds and skim the waves
And send the bravest to their graves,
Who’ve earned renown as hoarders, wyrms,
Monsters, fiends, and harsher terms
Yet are perhaps misunderstood
And might spice up the neighborhood.
For, given love, like any beast,
A dragon can be tamed, at least.

So Mom and Dad, you have to let
Me get a dragon as a pet.
I’ll take him out on flights each day
And teach him how to roar and slay.
He’ll never singe the rugs, I swear.
Oh, please, let’s have a dragon lair!
______________________

MPA rating: PG

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the third installment in the How to Train Your Dragon series. I loved the first film, while the second left me rather cold, and angry honestly at the way Hiccup’s father was torn from his family. I still consider myself a fan of the series, so I was hopeful The Hidden World would end the trilogy on a better note. Thankfully, it managed to deliver both an entertaining adventure and a satisfying conclusion to the story of Hiccup the Viking and Toothless the Night Fury.

Like many a DreamWorks film, The Hidden World does feel a tad recycled. Expanding the first film’s culture of dragon-hunting, the new villain is the famous and feared dragon hunter Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), who, like Drago in the second film, employs his own dragons for his purposes. And since the first film’s dragon nest and the second film’s dragon sanctuary weren’t impressive enough, we learn that Hiccup’s father was also searching for an even bigger “Hidden World,” the original home of the dragons. When Grimmel threatens the village of Berk and the peace between Vikings and dragons, Hiccup and his friends evacuate everyone to search for a new safe haven in this Hidden World.

Thanks to ever-improving technology, The Hidden World is probably the best looking of the three films, with lighting, shading, and fire and water effects adding greatly to the atmosphere and the thrilling action scenes. Abraham’s voice also makes Grimmel a dignified but menacing antagonist. The dire threat reinforces the slightly darker epic tone of the second film, while some well-played running gags successfully lighten the mood with doses of humor.

As I watched The Hidden World, I was trying to figure out what was lacking between this (one of DreamWorks’ best franchises) and the likes of Disney or Pixar. In addition to a few mixed messages (like calling dragons pets in the first film yet treating them as equals here), I think a main issue is the side characters; Astrid (America Ferrera) and Hiccup’s mother (Cate Blanchett) fare well, but Hiccup’s other friends are hastily introduced in an opening action set piece yet never make much of an impression beyond a few gags. Despite this, Hiccup and Toothless are a lovable pair to make up for other faults, and it’s genuinely sad as they start to drift apart when Toothless becomes enamored of a female “Light Fury.” Like Ash and Butterfree in Pokemon, it’s clear right away where the story is going with the relationship between dragon and rider, but, even if it didn’t bring a tear to my eye like it might well have when I was ten years old, it was still a touching and beautiful conclusion to an inconsistent but ultimately satisfying trilogy.

Best line: (Stoick, in a flashback) “But with love comes loss, son. It’s part of the deal. Sometimes it hurts, but in the end, it’s all worth it. There’s no greater gift than love.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
684 Followers and Counting

Abominable (2019)

Tags

Animation, Comedy, Dreamworks, Family, Fantasy

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write about a fruit. While I haven’t watched any big fruit-related movies lately, I went with the humble blueberry, which was featured in this movie.)

A humble fruit of pie and scone,
The blueberry is barren-grown
In berry fields from East to West
And happy, though it sounds depressed.

With belly-buttons on both ends,
One out, one in, this fruit transcends
The fact it’s on the tiny side
By filling pints in stores worldwide.

If you should drip a drop of juice
Upon your shirt, farewell its use.
Its stain is deep; its flavor sweet,
The M&Ms of nature’s treats.
__________________________

MPA rating: PG

From the trailers, Abominable looked like a been-there-done-that kind of movie, one more example of Dreamworks splicing together pieces of better animated films. Now that I’ve seen it, I’ll admit… it is exactly that, but that’s not to say it’s bad. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the studio’s better films of late, albeit overshadowed by the third How to Train Your Dragon last year.

Abominable is mainly notable for its Chinese setting, ranging from the metropolis of Shanghai to the gorgeous countryside to the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. A teenage violinist named Yi (Chloe Bennet), still grieving from her father’s death, discovers a young Yeti on the roof of her urban apartment and is whisked away as it flees from a wealthy industrialist (Eddie Izzard) attempting to collect it. Along with her two friends, she accompanies the creature she names Everest on a western journey to its mountain home, pursued by Everest’s would-be captors.

As I said, Abominable has plenty of familiar elements: the gentle-giant-bonding-with-kid dynamic (E.T., The Iron Giant), the bad-guy-trying-to-redeem-himself-from-ridicule cliche (Up, Paddington), the hurt-kid-learning-to-move-on-via-friendship trope (The Good Dinosaur, Lilo & Stitch, Next Gen). The waters are well-charted, but the trip and destination are still comfortable. Plus, it’s not entirely predictable, such as making one of the villains not as bad as they seem, and the characters are consistently likable as they grow on their journey. Like Coco’s Latin cast, care was taken to hire mostly actors of Chinese descent to match their characters, though it doesn’t do much to dive into Chinese culture, and I enjoyed hearing Chloe Bennet of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as the main heroine Yi.

Best of all, the animation is a visual feast. Everest proves to have magical powers that grow and manipulate the natural environment, and some of those scenes were stunning to behold. The best is probably the interlude where Yi plays her violin as flowers grow all around; both the visuals and Rupert Gregson-Williams’ music are lovely, and for some reason, they throw in a bit of Coldplay’s “Fix You,” which was random but fine by me. Abominable doesn’t reinvent any wheels – heck, with three Kung Fu Panda films, it’s not even Dreamworks’ first set in China – but it’s an enjoyable, family-oriented ride nonetheless.

Best line: (Mr. Burnish) “I’m so used to looking down on the world, it’s amazing how small one feels just by looking up.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
684 Followers and Counting

The Emoji Movie (2017)

Tags

Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem about outdated technology, so I went a little into the future to see how generations yet to come might look back on a present-day craze.)

 

The primitive Egyptians had their hieroglyphic font,
A picture-style penmanship to decorate the wall.
And slightly less archaic humans later chose to flaunt
Another image language on the phones they used to call.

You see here all the tiny illustrations they would use
To message, manage, and react in digital discourse.
We’re not sure why developed people (for the time) would choose
To discard words in favor of these mini-metaphors.

From faces showing every mood to smiling excrement,
These symbols were exchanged among them by the gadget-full.
These hands betoken clapping, and this sobbing shows lament,
And no one’s really sure about this purple vegetable.

It took a while for mankind at last to move beyond
This graphical vocabulary sent through cyberspace.
Now who will raise your hand and tell us what replacement dawned?
What new communication took the poor emoji’s place?
______________________________

MPA rating: PG

I watched The Emoji Movie at the end of a terrible day, thinking that, if it was truly as terrible as everyone said, I would associate it with that day and never want to see it again. It’s been lambasted so many times that it’s practically a meme to hate on it. Yet despite all the loathing, four Razzies, and the 7% Rotten Tomatoes score, I must admit it’s not that bad.

The premise is straight out of Inside Out or Wreck-It Ralph, but instead of emotions or video game characters, the cast consists of various emojis living within the digital city of Textopolis, inside the phone of a high schooler named Alex. Gene (T.J. Miller) is the son of two “meh” emojis, and although he is meant to personify indifference, he tends to “break character,” so to speak, and show emotions he shouldn’t, which eventually gets him in trouble and sends him on a dangerous journey through the phone and its many apps.

Would I characterize The Emoji Movie as good? No. It’s frequently dumb or crude humor is lackluster, and the climax, in which a single emoji somehow saves the day and causes an instant change in the direction of the plot, is socially myopic at best, not saying much good for the communication skills of the next generation. Yet, is that really enough reason to label it one of the worst films of the decade?

Other reviews I’ve read have insisted that this film has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, which is a pretty absolute statement for an adult to lob at a film aimed at kids. I thought the animation was colorfully fun and polished, and the world inside the phone, while obviously derivative, had some sparks of creativity, like visualizing Spotify as a series of literal “streams” of music to ride. Though some are grating, I didn’t mind the voice actors either (James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph). I do cringe at Patrick Stewart voicing the poop emoji, but Steven Wright as Gene’s “meh” father was an inspired choice.

So The Emoji Movie may be “meh” overall and is so tied to present-day technology that it’s sure to age poorly, but I don’t see what makes it worse than some similarly dumb blockbuster like Minions. There are many other films out there worth hating more.

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
679 Followers and Counting

Sing (2016)

Tags

Animation, Comedy, Family, Musical

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem inspired by a favorite musical genre. So I wrote my own lyrics to the beautiful Leonard Cohen classic “Hallelujah,” which was used in this film, and it’s best sung to that tune.)

I heard there was a big contest
Where people sang to prove they’re the best,
But who would try when all the world sees through ya?
Yet trying is a practice sport,
It’s hard to start, easier to thwart,
But still I saw a chance for hallelujah!

I answered to the casting call;
I saw so many give their all,
But not too much or else they’d have to sue ya.
Then my turn came, and I stepped sincere;
I flung my lungs to the judges’ ear
And hoped to God I’d find my hallelujah.

The echoes waned, and I waited there,
And one leaned backward in his chair,
And said, “If I produced, I would pursue ya.
But this audition’s meant for dance,”
So clearly I did not advance,
But still I got a chance at hallelujah.
It is true-ya,
But who knew-ya?
My debut-ya,
My limelight, but not quite,
Hallelujah.
____________________

MPA rating: PG

At first glance, Sing looks very generic, especially with Illumination largely meh record (The Secret Life of Pets, Despicable Me). Anthropomorphic animals? Seen it, that same year actually with Zootopia. A singing competition? That’s only been done, oh, about 100 times. So what does Sing offer? Well, nothing new really, but it does present its familiar elements in a highly crowd-pleasing way with an all-star voice cast and bright animation to rival its competitors.

A koala named Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) owns an old failing theater with great passion and nostalgia, and when the bank threatens to foreclose on it, he decides to hold a singing competition to revive the venue’s reputation, accidentally offering a cash prize he doesn’t have. A motley crew of animal characters then audition for the show with their eyes on the prize, and things go both very wrong and very right.

The most notable aspect of Sing is the sheer number of pop standards it includes, over 60, sometimes only for a few seconds, an expense that reportedly used up 15% of the film’s budget. From Taylor Swift and Frank Sinatra to Queen and Stevie Wonder, it’s a veritable auditory feast of well-produced popular music, which also offered me the surprise of realizing how well actors like Scarlett Johansson can sing, even as a porcupine. Plus, I have little doubt that Taron Egerton’s rendition of “I’m Still Standing” helped clinch his casting as Elton John in Rocketman.

The diverse characters and personalities – mice, porcupines, pigs, gorillas, elephants – all get basic but relatable character development, and I liked how every one of the contestants had a different reason for wanting to sing and win the money, whether for selfish needs, a chance to start over, or for more personal hopes and dreams. There was charm to spare in the voice cast, which also included Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Tori Kelly, John C. Reilly, and Peter Serafinowicz, and the animation was smooth and colorful, particularly an impressively rendered scene involving a flood.

So ultimately, Sing is an enjoyable film built on a lackluster base. It’s easily criticized for its lack of originality, yet all the ingredients come together to make it surprisingly… likable, I guess is the word. It’s easily Illumination’s best film, in my book. Plus, I do love the original song “Faith,” sung by Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande, which deserves a place in my End Credits Song Hall of Fame. Sing doesn’t step far out of any box, but it’s a thoroughly amusing and pleasant watch sure to get your toe tapping.

Best line: (Buster, showing Ash a garish costume) “Isn’t this a great color for you?”
(Ash) “I can’t tell. It’s melting my eyes.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
679 Followers and Counting

The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)

Tags

Animation, Comedy, Family

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem from the viewpoint of a character or creature from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, which is so full of bizarre imagery that he must have been high on something for the twenty years he painted it. After drawing an initial blank, I decided to write something from the viewpoint of the animals since Creation.)

I’m a pet, and you’re a pet,
But let us never once forget
That, when the world was new at birth,
We animals ruled all the earth.
The dogs and cats and tall giraffes,
The fish and lizards, foals and calfs
Held full dominion over all,
Utopia before the Fall!

And then the next day, God made man,
And nothing since has gone to plan.
________________________

MPA rating: PG

I wasn’t expecting much out of The Secret Life of Pets 2. It seems that, with any recent American animation that isn’t Disney or Pixar, it’s best to lower your expectations. Occasionally, you find a pleasant surprise like Klaus. More often, you get a cute movie that you’ll likely only ever watch again if you have kids. That’s The Secret Life of Pets 2.

It’s not bad, just uninspired, but so was the first one too, with its mish-mash of Toy Story with pets. The obvious imitation of the Woody/Buzz conflict with dogs Max and Duke was resolved in the first film, so the second has a little more room to do its own thing with its charming cast of characters, such as little dog Max (Patton Oswalt, replacing Louis C.K. after the latter’s scandal) wanting to rediscover his fearless side during a weekend farm visit, or tough-guy bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart) trying to pass himself off as a superhero by saving a tiger.

New additions include Harrison Ford as a pleasantly grizzled farm dog and Tiffany Haddish as a Shih Tzu with attitude. As a cat lover, I especially got a kick out of Chloe’s (Lake Bell) teaching the way of the cat to Pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate), who is still the best thing about this franchise and gets the funniest scenes.

It’s all cute and harmless with very little depth, but some clever comedic moments make it enjoyable and perhaps a bit better than the first film. Even when the plot tries to bring its many loose threads together at the end, it still feels like a bunch of potential TV episodes pasted into a feature film. This is clearly a franchise meant to appeal to the kids with little effort for their parents, but I can see those kids growing up with fond memories of it. Not every animated film has to break the mold, I suppose.

Best line: (Snowball) “I just freed a tiger. That’s not bragging; I’m just saying what happened. When you’re awesome, everything you say sounds like bragging.”

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
676 Followers and Counting

Ride Your Wave (2019)

Tags

Animation, Anime, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Sports

(For Day 1 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a metaphor poem comparing life to a particular action, so I took inspiration from a movie that heavily focused on a similar metaphor of surfing.)

 

I live upon a wooden board
That glides along the ocean swell.
So many others stood and fell,
So on my belly, safe I dwell.

My wiping out I can’t afford,
And so I hug the firm and known,
And watch the few whose comfort zone
Is so much wider than my own.

They call to me with one accord
To stand within the arching wave,
And though I fear it, still I crave
The confidence of being brave.

I close my eyes and let my board
Convey me to the tunneled tide
And find the worries, from inside,
Have dwindled down and liquefied.
_______________________

MPA rating: Not Rated (should be PG-13, for some adult themes and brief nudity)

I love that the last two years, I’ve been surprised by anime films I wasn’t expecting. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms proved to be the anime of the year in 2018, and Masaaki Yuasa’s Ride Your Wave was a similar pleasant surprise, considering I’d never heard of it until a preview before Weathering with You. Star-crossed love is a common anime trope, but Ride Your Wave puts a uniquely emotional spin on it, also standing out for its characters being young adults rather than the usual highschoolers.

Hinako Mukaimizu has just moved into a new apartment near the ocean, allowing her to regularly partake in her favorite hobby of surfing. After a fire threatens her building, she falls in love with handsome firefighter Minato Hinageshi, and their romance is wholesomely reminiscent of the beginning of Up. And like Up, it ends in tragedy, leaving Hinako alone and unable to move on. Soon, though, she begins seeing Minato in water when she sings their favorite song, leading to hilarious misunderstandings and an unhealthy situation that clearly cannot stay the way it is.

I’ve tended to steer clear of Yuasa’s other works (like Lu Over the Wall or The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl), perhaps because his unique art style didn’t seem to appeal to me, but I must admit that I loved Ride Your Wave, and it’s made me curious to check out his past work. His hyper-fluid animation really complements the prevalence of water in the film and creates some unique angles and perspectives to ravish the eye. It’s a more cartoon-ish style than Makoto Shinkai’s photorealistic scenes, but it’s still detailed and pleasing in its own way. (It’s interesting to note the coincidence of this film and Weathering with You both coming out the same year and both featuring an emphasis on water and a notable scene with fireworks.)

Beyond the technical, Ride Your Wave has real heart to it and does a great job developing its central couple, as well as side characters like Minato’s churlish younger sister. And that focus on likable characters is essential because there’s certainly absurdity to swallow here, such as Hinako walking around town with an inflatable porpoise filled with water (and Minato) in an effort to relive the days when Minato was still alive. The climax is wilder than that, so let’s just say it’s hard to imagine this film in anything but animation. It didn’t hit me until afterward, but the plot has many similarities to 1990’s Ghost, though with more of a rom-com sensibility than that film’s thriller elements. By the end, though, it definitely knows how to tap the emotions hard, even while retaining a sense of hope.

Since I can’t be all positive, Ride Your Wave is sometimes too on the nose with its blatant metaphor of learning to “ride the wave” of life. Plus, at only 94 minutes, the film’s relationships might feel too rushed to some, yet one could also say it presents what it needs to economically. I feel like Weathering with You is objectively a better film, yet Ride Your Wave made me feel more deeply, identifying at times with its exploration of grief. Yuasa’s blending of the poignant and the surreal is an unexpected treat for any fan of bittersweet romance.

Best line: (Minato) “If you stay with your head underwater, you’ll never learn to ride the waves.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
670 Followers and Counting

Weathering with You (2019)

Tags

Animation, Anime, Drama, Fantasy, Romance

The greatest threats and greatest wonders have their source within the sky,
Tornados with their whistle cry
And rainbows ere the air is dry,
Yet next to you, the marvels there have barely even caught my eye.

The storm can crash, the thunder clap, attempting to arrest my view,
But, whether sky be black or blue,
The sun will part the clouds on cue.
The rain will never fall as hard as I have fallen now for you.
_____________________

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for peril and brief nudity)

Weathering with You was #4 on last year’s list of My Top Twelve 2019 Movies I Hope Are Good, so it killed me that I had to wait until 2020 to finally see it in the theater. Makoto Shinkai had one of the toughest directorial challenges of the year, creating a follow-up to Your Name, which is still the highest-grossing anime of all time. How could Weathering with You possibly match Shinkai’s last emotional, artful powerhouse? Well, it doesn’t quite, but, boy, does it comes closer than I would have thought possible, leaving little doubt that Shinkai is in a class of his own when it comes to anime.

Shinkai’s films have been notable for their amazingly detailed depiction of rain, in The Garden of Words especially, and Weathering with You fits perfectly in his oeuvre as the most rain-centric film yet. Hodaka is a teenage runaway, fleeing to the bustling metropolis of Tokyo with little plan and finding himself homeless in the midst of an extended rainstorm. After finding employment with a small-time tabloid publisher, Hodaka investigates the legend of the “weather maiden” (or “sunshine girl” in the very good English dub), someone whose prayers can part the clouds and bring out the sun once more. He finds her in Hina, a girl who helped him when he was struggling, and together they turn her ability into a business, clearing the weather for events. However, Hodaka’s past and the secret behind Hina’s ability threaten them both and possibly the world as well.

As with all of Shinkai’s work, the hand-drawn visuals in Weathering with You are absolutely gorgeous, with an attention to detail that puts most other 2D animation to shame. One sequence of fireworks is awe-inspiring. Likewise, anyone who enjoyed the soundtrack of Your Name, provided by the Japanese band RADWIMPS, will be pleased at their second team-up for a Shinkai project. I’m now used to the director’s music-video-like interludes that felt a bit jarring in Your Name, and they serve to highlight the songs, which in turn complement the visuals. It’s a common conceit in anime openings for characters to be shown falling through the sky, often for no apparent reason; Weathering with You not only gives a good reason but makes the scene a brilliant climax of emotion and, backed by the song “Grand Escape,” gave me genuine goose bumps.

Animation isn’t everything, though, right? There has to be a good story and likable characters as well, and Shinkai provides those too. Hodaka and Hina aren’t quite on the same level of star-crossed YA lovers as Taki and Mitsuha in Your Name, but they’re still a cute pair worth rooting for, while the rest of the cast are enjoyably colorful as well, from Hina’s Casanova younger brother to Hodaka’s pragmatic employer. The plot does borrow some elements from Your Name – desperate running, a climactic reunion, a sudden separation that doesn’t hit quite as hard this time, a supernatural cause based in Shintoism that isn’t explained as well as I’d like – yet it’s far from a lazy copy, more like a director in his thematic comfort zone. Shinkai has stated that the story was influenced by climate change fears, which are evident by the end even if the point being made about it isn’t exactly clear, but it’s interesting and gratifying how his characters make a case for the value of the individual over collective concerns, which he thought might be controversial.

Weathering with You’s biggest problem is that it will inevitably be compared to Your Name, and it’s true that it would probably be even more impressive than it is if it hadn’t been preceded by a record-smashing older brother. (Granted, Shinkai does lean into the comparison at times, like a wink to the fans, which made me and my fellow theater-goers giddy.) Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed Weathering with You and highly recommend it, even to non-anime fans. After Your Name was spurned for a Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars three years ago, it’s a similar travesty that Weathering with You was also unjustly overlooked. It may be Shinkai’s third best film in my estimation, but with charming characters, stunning animation, impactful music, and a poignant story, it’s further proof of his films’ greatest strengths.

Best line: (Hodaka, to Hina) “Who cares if we can’t see any sunshine? I want you more than any blue sky.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
660 Followers and Counting