Clive Watches Ghibli: Part 4 (1999-2002)

As I trudge into the 2000's in my mission to watch and rank all the Studio Ghibli films fatigue has yet to set in, I'm still very much in love with this journey; the ups, the downs, the sheer beauty of it all (part 1 is here if you want to start from the beginning). This time the veterans Miyazaki and Takahata are once again joined by a directorial debutant in the shape of Hiroyuki Morita, who made his only appearance as a director for Studio Ghibli (he played a role as an animator on numerous others) in The Cat Returns. Let's get started.

Yamadas

My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999)

Isao Takahata has at this point made such varied films that it's hard to know what to expect next. He is perhaps always slightly overshadowed by Miyazaki, but there's no doubt that Takahata is a great director who doesn't like to stand still and who is never afraid to try something new, something I always admire in an artist. This time he turns his hand to adapting Hisaichi Ishi's yonkoma manga (think Peanuts 4-panel style comic) Nono-Chan to film. It stands out in Studio Ghibli's catalogue for two main reasons.  Firstly, the animation style is hugely different to any of the other films. This one stays very true to the manga with very little background detail (something Ghibli is usually famous for) and a very sketched feel that I absolutely adored. Secondly, the film has no real story arc. It is a set of vignettes ranging from 3 to 10 minutes each. My Neighbours the Yamadas follows a normal Japanese family (mum, dad, two kids and a grandma) and picks out little slices of their lives. Sometimes they connect, sometimes they don't.

This film is above all brilliantly observed and I found some of the scenes really moving thanks to a combination of some brilliant writing and an excellent soundtrack. The relationships feel real and are very relatable and at times the film is very thought-provoking. Despite this, I feel like this would have been best kept to around an hour as the run-time definitely dragged after that. It felt very much like a Saturday morning cartoon and would have worked a lot better split into a mini-TV series of 10 to 20 minute episodes or so I think. It's just hard to maintain interest for such an extended sitting when there is no main story arc, as good as the little stories contained within it are. There's a lot to be celebrated about My Neighbours the Yamadas but overall it could have done with being significantly leaner, or being presented in a different format which more suits the short-stories it contains.

6/10

Spirited Away.jpg

Spirited Away (2001)

Most people have at least heard of Miyazaki's masterpiece Spirited Away. Among stupendous amounts of other accolades, it remains the only hand-drawn and non-English language film to win the 'Best Animated Feature' Oscar, something of a landmark moment in cinema. Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro. She gets lost with her parents on route to her new house and ends up entering a strange spirit world housed at an abandoned theme park. What happens from then on is some of the most imaginative film-making you're ever likely to see.

Spirited Away is clearly influenced by Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland: a girl wanders off on her own and finds herself lost in a strange world full of strange characters. However, don't ever come into this feeling like you know what's coming. Trust me, you have no idea. It's unexpectedly dark, kind of gross at points, endlessly discussable and full of the absolutely gorgeous animation I've come to expect of Studio Ghibli by now. It didn't resonate with me as much as some of the others have on this particular viewing, and thus won't be at the very top of my list, but there's no doubt this is a masterful piece of animation, and one I haven't been able to stop thinking about since I watched it. I'm struggling to think if I've ever seen anything more imaginative. We see Chihiro grow as a character throughout the film and her genuine, unshakeable good-heartedness is such a delight, as is the knowledge that this film is so ripe for themes and discussion that I'll get something more out of it on every repeat viewing. Although this is one of the few Ghibli films I've already seen (many, many years ago) I feel like my opinion of it will improve every time I watch it, and it may rest closer to the very top of my list once I see it once (or twice) more.

9/10

CatReturns.jpg

The Cat Returns (2002)

One of the few Ghibli films not directed by Takahata or Miyazaki. This one is Horyuki Morita's only appearance as a director for the studio. The Cat Returns is a loose spin-off of Whisper of the Heart and follows our protagonist Haru, a quiet and shy girl who is invited to a magical cat-kingdom after saving one of its important inhabitants from being run over by a truck.

The animation of the characters in The Cat Returns isn't quite as detailed, although this feels like an artistic choice, and the story is far more simplistic than most of the famous duo's films. Nevertheless, the film is fast, entertaining, and one of the few Ghibli films that is very much suitable for younger children. Unlike My Neighbours the Yamadas I wasn't hugely moved at any point, this isn't that type of film, but unlike that film, I was very much entertained from start to finish. The film has good characters, a good sense of humour, and is admirably lean. There are far worse ways to spend 1 hour and 15 minutes.

7/10

So now it's time to get ranking. Let's throw this lot (all shown in bold italics) in the mixer and see what happens...

1. Princess Mononoke

2. My Neighbour Totoro

3. Grave of the Fireflies

4. Kiki's Delivery Service

5. Spirited Away (again, I feel this will probably end up higher when I watch it again)

6. Laputa: Castle in the Sky

7. Whisper of the Heart

8. Only Yesterday

9. Porco Rosso

10. The Cat Returns

11. My Neighbours the Yamadas

12. Pom Poko

Thanks for reading, we're past the half-way point now! Join me next time for Howl's Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea and Ponyo.