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The Secret World of Arriety: Review
14 years ago
General
I didn't cut him...
K I've had another thought since my last review. since I am doing this on my own liesure time and not getting paid for this...yet, I am only going to review movies that I want to see. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to review bad movies, like if nothing good comes out and I'm left with no option or I make a misjudgement from a preview. So don't worry you'll get your fill bile filled rants :D Like next weeks review I can't wait >.<
As always please leave comments on what you thought of this movie and this review :)
First off let’s make one thing clear, I do not like anime. When animation allows for infinite imaginative possibilities to create some of the most stellar scenes ever created, anime relies on cheap static poses and backgrounds and mouths that flap like a Canadian Muppet on South Park. What’s more annoying is how the characters’ eyes wiggle like they want to pop out and take a vacation from their static lives, and the Japanese call this emotion?! And what’s even more annoying is anime’s superfluous talent of giving tons of dialogue but never really saying anything, Hamlet could have negotiated peace between all nations and organised a bitching party to celebrate in the time it takes for one anime character to order a drink and even then Hamlet would’ve been less angsty. And what are even WORSE are the fans, who are some of the most pretentious people I’ve ever met, and I’ve checked and others think this too. The Japanese are not more cultured than other countries; it just looks more foreign than others, the kind that allows for tentacle porn and the stabbing of a baby dolphin in the face. I'm not saying all anime fans are like that but there are more than enough out there. But of course this is just my own personal taste. I’m stating this so when I say that The Secret World of Arriety is a good and beautifully animated movie, you better believe I mean it.
The Secret World of Arriety is another product of Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli, the makers of Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Since Disney owns all the rights to the internationally distributed Ghibli films, you can say that they’re a Japanese Pixar meaning that they do their own thing while Disney takes all the credit, those clever Mickey Mouse cooperates. Based on the series of books The Borrowers, the film is about Arriety and her family who are borrowers, tiny people so live under a house and “borrow” things from said house in order to survive and only take things that are never missed by the people of the house. I couldn’t help but feel this movie was propagating to children to create a little band of thieves, remember it’s not stealing if it’s small and call it borrowing! I would think that Marlon Brando would be sitting on a pile of sugar cubes while wearing a suit made of clothe pins and duct tape, but I digress. When Arriety gets spotted by the sick boy staying at the house, their curiosities get the better of themselves and begin a friendship that becomes increasingly threatening to both their lives.
I can barely call Ghibli films ‘anime’ because the technique of animation is WAY above normal anime par, mostly because everything actually moves and characters actually emote and don’t just look like dressed mannequins in a wind tunnel. I actually watched Spirited Away to prepare for this film which in hindsight wasn’t the best idea, cause the comparison in animation is like watching a magician disappearing the Empire State and then following up with pulling a dove from behind my ear, it’s still impressive but nowhere near the same scale, plus I don’t think the dove appreciated being smothered in a sleeve anyways. Still all the little touches to the borrower’s world makes the animation great: pouring water comes out like beads of dew and a horse statue bust is a chess piece. Though when the human’s perspective is viewed more constantly, the stakes are lessened and the obstacles are more like minor inconveniences, but that’s not really what the movie is focussing on.
For a children’s movie about friendship that’s distributed by Disney, I was surprised how grown up the writing was. Though never really said, the complexities and hardships of friendship are explored more deeply number of episodes of prancing ponies. It also leads to one of the most content emo speeches I’ve ever seen. Though I was impressed on how they handled it, I guess I can never escape the anime dosing of angst can I eh?
In the end, even though Arriety is not a perfect film, it certainly is a beautiful one with excellent writing, characters, animation and score that you shouldn’t miss. Now has this movie turned me on to anime? Hell no! Just because I’ve stepped onto the one safe landmine doesn’t mean I want to venture through the rest of the field! But if you think you can convince me otherwise with an example, please tell me about them! I’ll get right to them after I get tired of long nights with my right hand... and my left... and everyone else’s.
Next week I review Ghost Rider 2! Won’t that be fun?! (Sarcasm cranked to 11)
As always please leave comments on what you thought of this movie and this review :)
The Secret World of ArrietyFirst off let’s make one thing clear, I do not like anime. When animation allows for infinite imaginative possibilities to create some of the most stellar scenes ever created, anime relies on cheap static poses and backgrounds and mouths that flap like a Canadian Muppet on South Park. What’s more annoying is how the characters’ eyes wiggle like they want to pop out and take a vacation from their static lives, and the Japanese call this emotion?! And what’s even more annoying is anime’s superfluous talent of giving tons of dialogue but never really saying anything, Hamlet could have negotiated peace between all nations and organised a bitching party to celebrate in the time it takes for one anime character to order a drink and even then Hamlet would’ve been less angsty. And what are even WORSE are the fans, who are some of the most pretentious people I’ve ever met, and I’ve checked and others think this too. The Japanese are not more cultured than other countries; it just looks more foreign than others, the kind that allows for tentacle porn and the stabbing of a baby dolphin in the face. I'm not saying all anime fans are like that but there are more than enough out there. But of course this is just my own personal taste. I’m stating this so when I say that The Secret World of Arriety is a good and beautifully animated movie, you better believe I mean it.
The Secret World of Arriety is another product of Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli, the makers of Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Since Disney owns all the rights to the internationally distributed Ghibli films, you can say that they’re a Japanese Pixar meaning that they do their own thing while Disney takes all the credit, those clever Mickey Mouse cooperates. Based on the series of books The Borrowers, the film is about Arriety and her family who are borrowers, tiny people so live under a house and “borrow” things from said house in order to survive and only take things that are never missed by the people of the house. I couldn’t help but feel this movie was propagating to children to create a little band of thieves, remember it’s not stealing if it’s small and call it borrowing! I would think that Marlon Brando would be sitting on a pile of sugar cubes while wearing a suit made of clothe pins and duct tape, but I digress. When Arriety gets spotted by the sick boy staying at the house, their curiosities get the better of themselves and begin a friendship that becomes increasingly threatening to both their lives.
I can barely call Ghibli films ‘anime’ because the technique of animation is WAY above normal anime par, mostly because everything actually moves and characters actually emote and don’t just look like dressed mannequins in a wind tunnel. I actually watched Spirited Away to prepare for this film which in hindsight wasn’t the best idea, cause the comparison in animation is like watching a magician disappearing the Empire State and then following up with pulling a dove from behind my ear, it’s still impressive but nowhere near the same scale, plus I don’t think the dove appreciated being smothered in a sleeve anyways. Still all the little touches to the borrower’s world makes the animation great: pouring water comes out like beads of dew and a horse statue bust is a chess piece. Though when the human’s perspective is viewed more constantly, the stakes are lessened and the obstacles are more like minor inconveniences, but that’s not really what the movie is focussing on.
For a children’s movie about friendship that’s distributed by Disney, I was surprised how grown up the writing was. Though never really said, the complexities and hardships of friendship are explored more deeply number of episodes of prancing ponies. It also leads to one of the most content emo speeches I’ve ever seen. Though I was impressed on how they handled it, I guess I can never escape the anime dosing of angst can I eh?
In the end, even though Arriety is not a perfect film, it certainly is a beautiful one with excellent writing, characters, animation and score that you shouldn’t miss. Now has this movie turned me on to anime? Hell no! Just because I’ve stepped onto the one safe landmine doesn’t mean I want to venture through the rest of the field! But if you think you can convince me otherwise with an example, please tell me about them! I’ll get right to them after I get tired of long nights with my right hand... and my left... and everyone else’s.
Next week I review Ghost Rider 2! Won’t that be fun?! (Sarcasm cranked to 11)
And yeah, anime fans can get pretty self-important about it. Watching tons of anime don't make you smarter, it's just a different sort of junk culture. It's fun, yeah, and you're not stupid for liking it, just don't think you should be proud of it.