dvdjunkie wrote:Now I really feel like I wasted two hours of my life in a movie.
Took my 7 year old grandson and my 4 year old granddaughter to see this Ghibli trash because they wanted to see it and Disney Channel was overloading their brains with the trailers for it.
The theater we saw it in holds almost 300 people, is full Digital Picture and THX sound, but nothing could save this film from being boring iwth a capital "B".
The theater was full when the film started but thinned out to probably less than half the audience. Comments I heard were: "This is the worst Walt Disney film ever!", "Disney has lost its touch with kids", and my favorite, "C'mon, when we get home we can watch Little Mermaid, that was a real Walt Disney movie!".
I understand that Disney is just the distributor for this film, but my grandkids did like most of the movie. I think the 4 year old liked it more than the 7 year old.
I thought the animation was a throwback to the old 70's Saturday morning cartoons. I don't understand what everyone sees as being so good about Japanese Anime'. This was no "Spirited Away", and I am glad that I have that film in my collection to watch.
I'll just have to disagree wholeheartedly..
Interesting to hear that your audience was complaining.. the only comments I heard as I was walking out were about how good it was.. But it doesn't surprise me that they would say that in your theatre. I feel like a lot of people around me and in North America in general (especially in the US) have trouble accepting anything different... and therefore tend to ignorantly push away Japanese culture/manga/anime/etc.. It's just a different way of storytelling. :shrugs:
I think alot of people (such as those in your theatre) are only comparing this film to the Disney films they grew up with their entire lives... and aren't necessarily being open to a different experience.
I agree that there were some slow parts... but overall nothing was boring to me. I thought it was a really great story with very likeable characters.. and small bits of humor (nothing much) helped push the story along.
The animation and music was what really pulled me in though.. to hear you think it looked like 'saturday morning cartoons' is absurd. I could not stop basking in the beautiful animation and could not stop thinking to myself how much detail was in the animation. It's a different art style, yes.. but to say it resembled saturday morning cartoons..
Honestly, I've always thought that Ghibli's animation was much more intricate than Disney's. :shrugs:
But no, this particular film wasn't exactly up to par with something like Spirited Away.. but it was still a very beautiful and wonderful film. Can't wait to add it to my collection.
EDIT:
SWillie! wrote:I'm not a huge fan of Ghibli myself, and I understand not being a huge fan. But you are so obviously against this film because it is different, and slower, than your typical Disney fare. Especially when you consider the fact that Arriety is getting rave reviews from pretty much everyone - critics and fans alike. "Ghibli trash"? I haven't seen this yet, but I can guarantee it isn't that. There's no such thing as Ghibli trash. If you don't like, at least appreciate it as a well made film, which is obviously is.
Very well said, SWillie.