I watched My Neighbour Totoro (1988) yesterday for the first time. I’m not into animé in the slightest, I actively hate most of the pop culture that surrounds it, so I was bracing for impact before starting it. But man, it’s an incredible film. The background artwork was breathtaking, every frame was literally a painting, shown for a second or two then gone forever. The level of detail was overwhelming. There was something about the way it was animated and coloured and “lit” that made it feel like my soul was being nourished.
The youngest kid was so well-written and animated, reminded me so much of my nieces and nephews at that age. The way small everyday human things were included elevated the experience hugely. Like, the way the kid clumsily walks down the stairs, or the way someone puts their shoes on (they even animated the dad slipping his shoes off from the chest up, so you just see his shoulders move in a way that makes it clear what his unseen feet are doing, really masterful stuff).
My one criticism of it - and this may be a criticism of animated films in general - is the “frame rate” of the character animations. It was bordering on being a slideshow. Hand-drawn stuff that isn’t rotoscoped tends to have this issue, even in modern video games, and in Eastern animation in particular. For example, The Simpsons never had this problem, but Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon did (it’s probably one of the things that put me off the genre). It seems to be a stylistic choice, rather than just trying to save money by skipping the creation of every second frame. If so, it’s a choice I dislike and feel hurts the experience a little. Not hugely, just a little.
The story and acting were really pitch-perfect. Certainly a nice change from the grotesque shit I usually watch.
I’m going to be checking out the rest of Studio Ghibli’s oeuvre over the coming weeks. First on the list are: Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away. There are a few non-Ghibli animé films I plan to watch, too. Perfect Blue is one.
I just need to ensure I precede each film with 15 minutes of chanting “I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, a weeaboo”.
Very interesting. I’m searching around for some type of movie database that can help recommend films by life experience to align with this now to see if I can find something. Super cool.
Love this post. I’ll pin it for more visibility. And once you get a good list, I can add to the sidebar. Oh, I’d also put each link on a new line, just to make it easier to read. It looks one long link in each section, currently. Or like you said, I can make a post later and organize it if you want too.
My contributions:
Dan Murrell on YouTube. I find I’m in agreement with his reviews most of the time.
The Filmcast podcast is the only one I listen to regularly these days.
Oh yeah, it’s the Lemmy formatting. if you put 2 spaces or a backslash at the end it will add a line break and it won’t be double spaced, if you want to tighten it up a bit. Also you can insert a horizontal line by typing at least 3 dashes if that’s what you were going for with the row of pound signs. Looks like this:
Awesome! They have great chemistry and I love that they don’t always agree on movies. Gives a good variety of opinions. Jeff Cannata also does a podcast called DLC, as well as a interesting science podcast called We Have Concerns, if you’re into those at all.
I thought it was ok, I was hoping for more action from a movie about one of the greatest generals but it glossed over that to highlight his weird sex and marriage.
This was terrible, I only lasted an hour. I understand the budget was probably low and that affected the CGI, so much bad greenscreen. I felt like I was watching the best ever fmv cut scenes from a 90s pc game, one that probably came on about 3 CD-ROMs! 😄
George A Romero is definitely worth checking out. He’s earned the moniker “Father of the Zombie Film,” and for good reason.
If you’re into classic movies, I’d suggest starting with Night of the Living Dead (1968). That one really turned heads when it came out. If classic movies aren’t really your thing, Land of the Dead (2005) is a very fun romp.
Day of the Dead (1985) is probably my all-time favourite movie. I appreciate that his movies are not only fun zombie movies, but they also have a message behind them. Day of the Dead is full of existential dread, and touches at the meaning or absurdity of life, and how that means different things to different people.
In each of his zombie movies, although the undead do pose a mortal and existential threat, Romero holds up a mirror to humanity and says that its our innate inability to cooperate which dooms us. It’s a powerful message, and one that seems to have held up for the past sixty years if you follow the news.
Hard agree on the Coen brothers, their filmography is absolutely stellar. Other than them I think Hayao Miyazaki deserves a mention here. Dude basically never missed in his entire carreer as a director.
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