I'm not the biggest fan of anime. There are some great ones out there: Vampire hunter D; Ghost in the Shell; My neighbour tortoro; Howl's moving castle spring to mind.
However my problems with anime are:
* the faces are largely expressionless, there's no excuse for that, it's not kabuki...
* the large eyes and small mouths don't look right
* all of the characters whenever they see something always make a small 'ahhhoo' noise
* there is no moral ambiguity in the characters, they are either bad, good or kinda middling but ending up good.
If you've ever sat through an episode Japanese animation (DragonballZ is a good example) you'll understand. Those programs are doubly annoying as the voiceovers are shocking.
I think it's the lack of ambiguity that really gets to me, the examples I listed earlier have far more character development (except for MNT which is just cute and lovely) making them a story rather than George Lucus characiture.
Tales from EarthSea was an adaptation of a Ursula la Guin story. From my more knowledable movie mates, a very loose adaptation. Character development was poor, pacing was pretty dire (it could have lost 30-45mins), no moral ambiguity, plot holes aplenty.
As positives, the background paintings were gorgeous.
So, not the best start to my festival this year, but it did make Gary happy that he missed it. I wouldn't even recommend it to take kids to either, since it is 2 hours long and drags. And I'm still not entirely sure how the dragons fit into things.
Me. xx
22 July 2007
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3 comments:
Yeah, this was directed by Miyazaki's son, and they apparently had a massive falling out over it.
Anime is certainly an acquired taste and there's a lot of rubbish to wade through, but there are some gems to try out. If you liked Ghost in the Shell, you could do a lot worse than the "what-if" follow-up series Stand Alone Complex. Last Exile is also worth a look.
I had a browse of an Earthsea compilation in the local multi-national bookstore the next day. The link between the book and it's adaption was perhaps even more tenuous than I thought...
Hayao Miyazaki of My Neighbour Totoro fame can do a good line in moral ambiguity, although the flicks of his you've already seen probably aren't the best examples. In his Princess Mononoke the supposed baddie, a haughty laydee who is clearing a forest in order to mine iron, also happens to run a sort of commune for lepers and ex-prostitutes. Plus, the film's heroine is actually a bit feral - literally - having been raised by wolves, so she's pro-environment and misanthropic. So... who's right?
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