Saturday, January 21, 2006
Friday Movie Review
I'm sure there are good movies out there, I just don't want to see any right now. Apparently, I'm not the only one. While there will probably be movie theaters into the future, we might have crossed a threshold regarding the way we watch them. I see DVD becoming the main conduit for movies. Each year the DVD sales will increase and box office at theaters will decrease. I also see declines if Hollywood continues to produce agenda movies that no one wants to see. So here's a review of a movie I saw on TV last Thursday.
Tonari no Totoro (My neighbor Totoro) is a 1988 gem of a Japanese cartoon from the Ghibli studios, the Walt Disney of Japan. It is as wonderful as people who saw it were telling me for years and years (including my son Andrew). Turner Classic Movies are showing movies from this studio every Thursday--first dubbed in English and then in Japanese with subtitles (I prefer the latter). I see I'm late in getting the news out--only two to go next Thursday (Only Yesterday and Pom Poko-- the latter is not my favorite).
Totoro is an egg shaped furry forest spirit who lives in a huge champhor tree near the home of two little girls who have moved to the countryside to be near their ailing mother (we never know her sickness). Mei, the younger girl, 4, is I think the most accurate and complete 4 year old character I have ever seen. It's amazing. She's merely a series of drawings. I think 4 year olds are incapable of acting so we have to rely on artists to recreate them.
Not really that much happens, but it's funny and beautiful and it makes your heart warmer. If you have young children, buy it for them as soon as you can and watch it in Japanese after they go to bed.
UPDATE: My prediction about DVD and theatrical releases is apparently already coming true.
Tonari no Totoro (My neighbor Totoro) is a 1988 gem of a Japanese cartoon from the Ghibli studios, the Walt Disney of Japan. It is as wonderful as people who saw it were telling me for years and years (including my son Andrew). Turner Classic Movies are showing movies from this studio every Thursday--first dubbed in English and then in Japanese with subtitles (I prefer the latter). I see I'm late in getting the news out--only two to go next Thursday (Only Yesterday and Pom Poko-- the latter is not my favorite).
Totoro is an egg shaped furry forest spirit who lives in a huge champhor tree near the home of two little girls who have moved to the countryside to be near their ailing mother (we never know her sickness). Mei, the younger girl, 4, is I think the most accurate and complete 4 year old character I have ever seen. It's amazing. She's merely a series of drawings. I think 4 year olds are incapable of acting so we have to rely on artists to recreate them.
Not really that much happens, but it's funny and beautiful and it makes your heart warmer. If you have young children, buy it for them as soon as you can and watch it in Japanese after they go to bed.
UPDATE: My prediction about DVD and theatrical releases is apparently already coming true.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 8:19 AM 
