Whisper of the Heart (1995) - Corny, silly and a total mood movie.

 

I've looked at animated movies from Japan before, but never from the most well known studio, Studio Ghibli, and there was a reason for that. I wanted the first Studio Ghibli film I reviewed to be one that I held close to my heart. I also wanted it to be a special occasion, and while fifty reviews may not seem special, it means a lot to me. So, I want to celebrate by looking at one of my all time favourite movies; Whisper of the Heart.

I feel like Whisper of the Heart gets overshadowed a lot by the other Studio Ghibli movies. When talking about all of them, it's always Totoro, or Spirited Away, or Kiki's Delivery Service, Grave of the Fireflies, Princess Mononoke, or something else. I think most animation fans have that one Studio Ghibli movie that they feel is overlooked by the big names, which is why I wanted to look at Whisper of the Heart first. A large part of why I do this is to shine a light on movies some people may not have checked out, so if you haven't looked at Whisper of the Heart directed by Yoshifumi Kondō, should you?

To describe the story would be difficult, not because the story is complicated, at its core, the story follows Shizuku Tsukishima and follows her as she decides what she wants to do with her life. It is a simple story, but it is so compact and so much happens before the one hour mark. I will say that some of these things don't really get completely resolved, or at least, they're resolved in small and quiet ways. There is a character in the movie that has feelings for Shizuku, but Shizuku's friend has feelings for him, but his friend has feelings for Shizuku's friend. While this plot point does get resolved, it isn't really sent off with much fanfare, it's just kind of over in a couple sentences. Strangely, this doesn't actually make the plot rough or sloppy, and I think I know why. This is probably the best example of a slice of life movie I have ever seen. Think about it, lots of situations in life kind of just stop short at the end. This movie exceeds at that idea, and I feel like this is something that Studio Ghibli captures in a couple of films.

Speaking of which, this movie is corny. It can be corny, silly and really awkward. Normally I would be critical of these scenes, but again, that is life. Life can be awkward, corny and silly. I guess that doesn't really encourage people who hate awkward and corny moments, trust me I get it, but I don't think these scenes are unwatchable. I don't know, maybe I personally relate to the weird kid that shows off their writings to anyone even if it is... really cringey. God why didn't any of my high school teachers slap me upside the head?

Character wise, we have to start with Shizuku. Shizuku Tsukishima is, in my opinion... One of my all time favourite fictional characters. Top five hands down. There are not a lot of characters I feel I can really relate to, but I can really relate to Shizuku. I was probably a couple years older than her when I first saw this movie, but we were both students that enjoyed writing, and while we often found our work to be corny or cringey, we both tried to push ourselves, and we both were still wondering about what we wanted to do with ourselves. Even without all of that, I enjoy her cheer and optimism, but she isn't totally optimistic, she has her outbursts of anger, she gets overly emotional, she has self doubt. None of this distracts us from the fact that this is the same character that excitedly followed a cat into an antique shop though, it really does feel like we are watching a real person. Shizuku is also a total mood character for me and it is awesome.

To round out the other character, Shizuku's parents are... fine, maybe a bit unrealistically lenient, but not too bad. The old man who runs the antique shop is very warm and friendly, Shizuku's sister reminds me too much of my brother from when we were younger to really like, and Shizuku's friends are very realistic, poking some fun at her, but also being concerned for each other. You can see two of them go from playfully having some fun to being concerned for Shizuku, just by the expression of their faces. The only other character to really note is Seiji, and I'm going to be honest, I only ever came across a character like this once, and that was Logan Echolls from Veronica Mars, a character you just started off wanting to punch in his smug, git face, but by the end you actually kind of like.

I think the dubbing cast did a great job too. I know I should have watched this in the original Japanese language, but, come on The Dread Pirate Roberts himself voices the coolest cat ever! In fact, this cat was so cool, that The Cat Returns was made, and I am convinced it was entirely to give us more of Carey Elwes as the Baron.

On a technical level, this movie is beautiful. The animation, well it is Studio Ghibli animation, so it is really good. Characters are well designed and I didn't notice any errors. What is more interesting to talk about thought is the music, or the lack of music. One of my Twitter mutuals, PowerLoud Girl made a tweet a while ago calling Studio Ghibli movies a form of ASMR, and yeah I totally get it. Studio Ghibli movies do tend to be a lot quieter, and in this movie, often the only background noise you get is literal background noise. Echoing footsteps, the sounds of bugs, even some bits of dialogue, which you can make out more often than not. I think that is a really nice touch. When there is background music, it can be really good, and I think the best example is the music in the antique shop. I think it's a harpsichord, but correct me if I'm wrong, but whatever instrument it is, it really does sell this scene as being right out of a fantasy story.

On some level, I really should hate this movie. It is slow paced, corny and awkward, and has a very compact and hard to outline plot. That being said, I love the atmosphere of the settings, I love the character relationships, I love Shizuku's character, I love the animation, I love the Baron, I love a lot of this movie. Upon a critical viewing, this movie does have some flaws, but I don't think they are movie breaking. I really do think this is a movie that anyone who wants to go into an artistic field should see. This movie almost, defies being reviewed by my typical style, and I am super glad I saved it for this occasion. It is one of my all time favourite movies, and I highly recommend it.

Storybook Classics: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1986) - A poor and really dull telling of the famous gothic story

You know, I haven't done a "Technically" in a while. The last time I did that was looking at the 1960s Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. A "Technically" is a review where the movie is less than an hour long, but is more than 40 minutes. 40 Minutes is the minimum time required by both the American and British Film Institute for a film to be considered "Feature Length", so it's the minimum requirement I use for these blogs. I tend not to review these movies often because, well they're usually more television specials, but sometimes, they're just to much of a curiosity to pass up. Case in point, this adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame from 1986. Literally I just found the DVD in a sales bin and thought, "This looks like it would be an interesting watch.", and then I bought it. The question is, if you find the DVD somewhere, is it worth it?

I'm actually very unfamiliar with the source material since, unlike the last review, this is my first exposure to the hunchback story, I never read the book, and I never saw the Disney adaptation from 1996. So I am not going to comment on this as an adaptation, though I personally doubt that being a good adaptation would really change matters.

I really couldn't tell you the plot of this movie, but I'll try. Frollo is an archdeacon at Notre Dame who becomes infatuated with the... hmm... well in less PC times we would have said Gypsy, Esmerelda. He sends the hunchback bell ringer, Quasimodo, to kidnap her I think, which gets him arrested by the guard Phoebus, and most of the movie is focused on Esmerelda and Phoebus's relationship. Esmerelda gets put on trial for the murder of Phoebus and Quasimodo has to save her, honestly I do not really care. This movie is super boring. Overall I guess the plot doesn't flow too badly, but that doesn't really mean anything when the viewer is nodding off every couple of minutes.

The characters are not very deep. I mean it would be very tough for this movie to copy the deep and complex character of Disney's Frollo, especially in the 1980s, but at least do something a bit more than make him a lying jerk. His ultimate plan is to have Esmerelda in the cathedral to purify her, which I guess could be metaphor, but this Frollo is so flat that I do believe he just wants to convert her to Catholicism. They try to flesh him out by giving him the interest in alchemy, but it doesn't really amount to much. Quasimodo is your basic henchman good guy, Esmerelda is your basic pretty girl damsel, Phoebus is your basic good looking good guy. Yeah, this was probably made for TV in the late 80s, but it isn't like cartoon characters of the 80s were devoid of personality and quirks. I found myself not really caring about these characters.

Although, the voice work might have also played a part in that. The voice actors for Quasimodo and Frollo put on these really annoying voices, and the voice actress for Esmerelda was kind of dry and emotionless, just kind of "Reading the lines" sort of feel to the performance. Every other voice is mostly just a generic sounding voice, so it really doesn't sound like the actors are giving this their A game.

The art style in this movie is, legit, not that bad. It looks detailed and gothic, but not in that German Expressionist sort of way, like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and a lot of that is helped thanks to the duller and more muted colour palette, which really does add to the visuals. That being said, the visual quality of the movie is pretty bad, and I have no clue as to why, no seriously I am baffled because I have never encountered this problem before. See, I watched the DVD release from Genius Entertainment and the quality looked on par with a typical VHS tape. I'm not kidding, it even has that white noise sound that most VHS tapes have. I have no idea why this is the case, my best guess is that the master reel was lost and they resorted to a back-up or recording of the program, and that is my most generous guess, I haven't ruled out the possibility that the original master was junked (For those of you who don't know, "junking" is why a lot of classic Dr. Who episodes are completely lost) or even that the original master was this low quality in the first place. The one thing the movie had going for it, and it's still ruined by something.

Yeah, I kind of just phoned this review in. Really, this movie is just really boring, with poor voice work, bland characters, a rather generic musical score, and it's also just really unfunny, and it tried to be funny. While the art style is really good, it really is not enough to save this movie. If you do end up finding it in a discount bin somewhere, I say leave it be, I can not recommend this film at all, and I'd say it's so boring, that you might as well just avoid it all together.

Well, it's my fiftieth proper review next month, I should do something special for the occasion.

First Impressions: Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

So, Raya and the Last Dragon finally got out of Premier Access. Yeah, this one was a bit late, but Disney's decision to put films on Disney+ behind a paywall is legitimately one of those things I can criticize the service for. Like, we're already paying for the service, why must we pay extra to see a movie? I could have bought the movie on DVD but I wasn't gonna shell out forty bucks for this movie. Still, it is embarrassing how late I am to the punch on this one, but at least I have an excuse, I still need to cover The Mitchell's Vs the Machines and I have no excuse for why I'm late on that one.

So, Raya and the Last Dragon is... fine. It is perfectly fine, not a bad movie, I don't think it is anything spectacular, but it was fine. Yet, it is undeniably a Disney movie.

I think I should talk about what I did like about the movie, and there is a bit. There were some moments that I did enjoy, some scenes I thought were really well done, and actually took me into the movie a lot more. I don't think these scenes will really get up there for my favourite movie moments, but like, that is comparing to some of the timeless masterpieces which I don't think is really fair to this movie yet, a wine does have to age before it becomes fine after all. I also did like the design of the dragons, I don't think they're my favourite dragon designs, but they are unique, I don't see a lot of furry dragons... don't take that out of context.

I think the main story elements like the plot, characters and world building are all fine. The performances were good and the animation was not bad. I feel like this is one of those movies where a home release really kills it, some of the scenes, even ones I really liked, probably would have been better on a giant screen with surround sound in a specifically engineered room to optimize the viewing experience. In other words, this is a theater movie, through and through.

I guess it does make sense to make more of these "Theater movies" now since home theaters are becoming a reality and televisions are getting bigger and bigger. The thing is though, while these movies look and sound great in a theater environment, the same cannot be said for home environments, or travel environments, or really any place you might watch a a movie that is not the theater. Once in this movie I thought back to Abominable, which I liked, but had to admit a lot of that was because I did see it in the theater, it was a movie that needed the big screen and completely encompassing audio to mask what was, ultimately a rather simple story. I do feel Raya is, at the very least, in the same category of films, where they mostly live off the experience in the theaters.

Of course, I also can't deny that this is a Disney movie, through and through. Now, I love Disney, I literally have to stop myself from just going through every single Disney movie in a row on this blog. I grew up with Disney movies and TV, and at least a quarter of my favourite movies were made or owned by Disney. I do love Disney... but they have an undeniable formula, they love to hit on familiar beats and you do catch on quick. If there is a trope or cliché that people are familiar with in Disney movies, chances are it appears in this one. This does include the fast talking comic relief, who... I mean, it kind of was cool that she was also the powerful McGuffin of the movie, but I still didn't find her that amusing. Really I didn't find the movie that funny, I only laughed at one moment, but this isn't a comedy, it's an action/adventure movie. The fight scenes were okay, the editing on the first one was terrible, but overall they weren't bad, just not my favourite moments.

Though, all of that being said, I may be looking at this movie with bitter eyes. Yes, I am a critic so I should be able to slide personal stuff aside, but firstly, screw that nonsense, I am a person and my opinions can not only change, but also be swayed by outside influences. I want to embrace that, but secondly, I want to be totally fair to this movie, I want to lay my biases out in the open because I want to be fair to every movie I look at. So, let's talk about Nimona.

Salt in the wound here, as I am still a bit upset about the cancellation of Nimona, and it really was not this movie's fault that it came out during that whole debacle. I also don't want to make it seem like Raya is the only movie that Disney released recently that is covered by that particular shadow, the newest release of Cruella did bring up Nimona once more, for me at least, but it still is really upsetting that Disney released this movie behind a paywall around the same time they cancelled a movie that lots of people were excited for. I kind of went into this movie expecting a typical Disney affair, and I got a typical Disney affair, which is not the movie I needed in Nimona's place.

Yet, all of that having been said, Raya and the Last Dragon is still a fine movie. I don't think it is a bad movie, I think it is fine. If you have kids, they'll probably enjoy it more than I did, if you love everything Disney puts out, you should probably get some help, but you'll enjoy it more than me as well. I think most people will enjoy it more than me, I can admit when I am off the ball. There were some scenes I liked, and I do think the message of unity is very pertinent in this moment of history, though I'd also recommend watching Fraggle Rock for that message. Overall, I may be casting some unnecessary glares at this movie, I may unfairly bring up an issue that is not this movie's fault, and I may not think it is particularly great, but I would be wrong if I did not on some level recommend it. It is fine, it is a passable movie that will do more for other people, I'll admit that.

The Adventures of Tintin (AKA: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn) (2011) - A fine adventure for fans and newcomers alike

So, I said I was gonna try and review older movies this year. I am not backing out of my promise, I am still going to try and review movies from the 1990s and before, but I think I should be allowed some leeway here. Especially since 2011 was ten years ago, my does time fly. I figured since I had the opportunity I should give this movie a go, especially since I am a big Tintin fan. When I was a kid, there was this channel called "Teletoon Retro", it was pretty much Boomerang for you readers with Cartoon Network, it played all of the old kids shows and is where I first discovered such wonderful shows like Fraggle Rock, Rocket Robin Hood, and of course, The Adventures of Tintin. After that I read some of the comics, and I really love them. They're definitely my favourite comics and I kind of wish someone took the license and made more of them, I dunno maybe Dark Horse or IDW, but regardless, given my enjoyment of the franchise, how does the movie hold up?

The plot follows Tintin, an English reporter, as he tries to figure out what makes a model ship he purchased so alluring to others, a model ship that gets him kidnapped, introduces him to the drunkard Captain Haddock, and takes him to the Middle East to find the secret that these model ships are holding. It's kind of an amalgamation of different Tintin comics, The Secret of the Unicorn most notably, but with elements of a few others. Overall I do think that the plot moves along solidly, being an adventure/mystery movie I feel both elements are done very well and in keeping with the comics, well sort of.

Watching this movie, it really does highlight the differences in expectations between comics and cinema. Comic audiences don't typically expect long, epic chase sequences, thrilling and exciting action scenes. This is because of the fundamental differences between the comic and cinema mediums. Comic books are not very long, sure you have graphic novels and manga, but other comic books, especially the serialized ones, like the superhero and Tintin comics, are rather short affairs. For the most part (From my bare minimum of research so feel free to correct me in the comments) Tintin comics are 62 pages long, with a few exceptions, notably the first book which is 141 pages long. Even so, the amount of action you can convey is limited, so a chase scene would need to be a handful of panels, a page at most if you can get away with it. With cinema, that handful of panels to a page can be translated to two to five minutes maybe, so you can get away with some of the flowing camera work and more... outlandish elements that this film gets away with.

I am rather split on the action scenes in the movie. The chase seen in Bagghar was pretty well done, if a bit more destructive than I think would happen in a regular Tintin comic. The crane duel between Haddock and Sakharine though, that was just stupid. I'm also not a huge fan of the camera flow in the chase scenes, maybe that is just a me thing.

I think this transitions decently well into the animation which... is a mixed bag. On one hand, the movie looks incredible. The lighting and the textures almost made me think this film was shot live action, which can be a problem, you know this is animation, but I think the characters were exaggerated enough to make it not too realistic. In fact, that character design is really good, Haddock looked just like a three-dimensional, more realistic version of Haddock would look like, Thomson and Thompson looked great, but on the other hand I think they erm... well reduced Madame Castafiore's size a bit, and gave her a different nose, and as for Tintin, some of his facial expressions looked really off to me, that may just be a me thing, but some of his looks just gave an uncanny valley kind of vibe.

Character wise, they're all the same characters you know and love from the original comics. Tintin is a curious and determined fellow that tends not to go down without a fight. Captain Haddock is a drunken excitable man of action, and Thomson and Thompson are the same bumbling police officers they were in the comics. They included Madame Castafiore in the movie as a bit of fan service, personally I would have also enjoyed to see Professor Calculus as he is one of my favourite characters. Overall though, the characters have largely been unchanged, and the voice cast did a decent job as well. Andy Serkis was really good as Haddock, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg worked great as Thomson and Thompson, even if they probably only got the role because of Hot Fuzz, let's be honest. I think my only real complaint is Jamie Bell as Tintin, but that is definitely a me thing. See, I grew up with the 1990s animated series, which (if you were an English speaker like me) had voice actor Colin O'Meara as Tintin, and that obviously not at all British voice is the voice I most associate with the character. Again, totally a me thing, and Jamie Bell did an excellent performance, I'm just used to the voice I grew up with.

Over all The Adventures of Tintin was a fine movie. Unlike Coraline, it does translate what I liked about the comics to the big screen. I really should stop being so mean to Coraline. Anyway, while I do have my issues with the movie, it had some good action scenes, a solid mystery, faithful characterizations, and had some genuine moments of good humour. I think whether you're a fan of the comics, or are a newcomer to the series, you'll get something out of this movie. While I don't think it's one of my favourite movies, I am glad I saw it. Solid recommendation. Maybe I should try to find the other Tintin movies as well.

Editorial: A statement

 This is just a brief statement.

Recently on Twitter, The Guardian made the hot take that Shrek was not a good movie. Someone else went further and made the statement that most kids movies were terrible, even naming things like Up and Wall-E.

This is the type of view that I am fighting.

I predominately look at animated movies because of the stigma that is attached to animation, but I now realize that this stigma goes beyond animation, it goes beyond film, it goes beyond art itself. This is a stigma attached to children.

This stigma is that children do not see or understand quality, they see marketable characters, pretty colours and toilet humour. Yes, these things do appeal to kids, not to every kid, but to lots of kids. To deny that is to deny that people still watch The Simpsons or Family Guy, we may not like to admit it, but it is true. That being said, children can see past marketability, pretty colours and toilet humour. Kids can see depth, kids can see nuance, kids CAN SEE QUALITY.

If I can use myself as an example, I was about twelve years old when The King's Speech came out, might have watched it at thirteen. The King's Speech is not a kids film, it is a historical drama about the British monarch King George VI during a time of trial for him. I first watched it at thirteen at the youngest, and it is one of my favourite movies of all time, and I knew it back then as well.

I was also incredibly young when I first watched "First Blood", "Terminator 2" and "Tombstone" three more of my favourite movies. Quality films, and if I were a dumb kid that didn't see past "entertainment value" First Blood would have bored me to tears, Terminator 2 would have bored me to tears, and I could not take my eyes off that move at first.

The biggest insult there is, is to equate being a kid to being stupid. Kids are a lot smarter than most adults, because kids are naturally curious, willing to ask any question. Adults love to stamp that curiosity out of their head, putting them in an unstimulating environment that is rife with bullying and terrible people that forces them into an outdated system that values them on their ability to regurgitate information rather than learn information.

I want to make it clear; Anyone, and I do mean ANYONE, that disregards kids films or any other media geared towards kids, has no respect for kids or the media they claim to love. Movies made for kids are still movies, video games made for kids are still video games.

I want this stigma to stop. I do believe that kids media should be respected, but beyond that, kids need to be better respected. The idea that kids will accept shoddy quality because their kids is wrong. The notion that you can put little effort into a kids movie is equally wrong.

My goal with this blog is to make animation a more respected medium, and I want it known that while animation doesn't just mean kids movies, the two do go hand in hand often.

That is all I have to say about that.