Runtime: 125 minutes
Directed by: Hayao Miyazai
Starring: I saw the subbed version, so it was a bunch of random Japanese voice actors
From: Studio Ghibli
Would you believe I had never seen this before? It's true. Would you believe that Fathom Events showed it both dubbed and subbed, so I got to see it subbed last night? Also true. Would you even believe that I did not love this movie... or even really like it? It sounds impossible but regrettably, also true. I try to explain why this was such a letdown below:
I will admit that by now I thought I would have seen more of Studio Ghibli's movies. If there was a legal way to stream them by paying just a few bucks each... I can say that last year I saw Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and thought it was really cool, and Porco Rosso... well, that was fine and that's it. It's been more than a year since seeing something from them, but when I saw that Fathom Events would be showing this both dubbed and subbed, what better time to check out what I understand is the studio's most beloved and most popular film. Don't worry, I saw the subbed version.
There have been various times in the past where here and elsewhere, I've stated that I did not care for a film most everyone else loves. Fury Road is the most famous example but there have been others. I never thought beforehand that this could possibly go into such a category, as it has universal acclaim among critics and fans; I literally knew nothing about the story besides seeing .gifs and pictures of a few characters. As I presume most have seen this already, a plot descirption shouldn't be necessary.
Now, I won't get into what drugs I may or may not have done in my lifetime. However, maybe I would have been better off smoking some pot before seeing this! Sludge monsters, animals that are now walking bipedal things, a person changes into another animal, soot w/ legs and eyes, garish creatures all around... this was WAY weirder than I expected. Unfortunately, I found it to be off-puttingly weird, especially when you factor in how most of the characters you see are real a**holes, even some that end up helping out our heroine. I did not enjoy the bizarre nonsensical story either, nor how our heroine was more often than not a clumsy buffoon, although finally in the final act she became more of a hero; there isn't a lot of character growth with her, regrettably. The ending... in various ways, it came across like a wet fart.
This movie just left me cold. The rating reflects that the animation was top-notch and the musical score was great. It's just the story and characters... I am disappointed in that I am disappointed with the movie. I could have lied and said that this was great, but I wanted to be honest here, even if I know that everyone else will vehemently disagree with my opinion. I don't know if it's me never liking Alice in Wonderland-there are obvious parallels-or something else... I was just not enchanted with the story or the unpleasant characters. I'll still watch more Miyazaki in the future; from what I understand I shouldn't have such a detached, negative feeling to his other stone cold classics.
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