Just saw this

There was recently a anime film festival in Australia for about a week. The movie's being shown were From up on Poppy Hill, Wolf Children, Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below and Berserk: Egg of the King all in their original japanese language with english subtitles. I took my brother to see 3 of these movies with me but neither of us saw Berserk: Egg of the King.

He had only seen 2 anime films ever prior to going to this, both of which were hyper fast paced action packed ones so naturally I was kinda nervous about how he was going to feel about them since he would be stuck there for the next 6 hours and luckily he really enjoyed the first two and thought the last was okay.

I've seen quite a lot of anime and I agree'd with him. If I had to rank and assign each of them ratings it would go

-Wolf Children 9/10
-From up on Poppy Hill 7.5/10
-Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below 6/10

Wolf Children, as you can see, was my favourite from what I saw. Both my brother and I found it spectacular. I really don't feel like saying a whole lot about this movie because it's a pretty simple one. If you've read about it and seen a trailer and like what you've read and seen, then do yourself a favour and see Wolf Children. It was very engaging, tender, heartbreaking, warm, paced really well and terrifically written. I enjoyed this just as much as the director's previous 2 films The Girl who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, if not a little more. All 3 are fantastic in their own ways.

From up on Poppy Hill is Goro Miyazki's second effort after he broke Studio Ghibli's hit run with the stinker that was Tales from Earthsea and to my suprise, I thought it was pretty damn good! Goro Miyazaki clearly took on a task far too big for a rookie with Tales from Earthsea which had it's moments and looked great visually but ultimately fell flat on it's face. Goro Miyazaki took a big step back in terms of scale and with From up on Poppy Hill, he truly blossomed and made something worthy of the title "a studio ghibli film". It's not among the very best Studio Ghibli has made, however it's certainly not near the bottom. It sits very comfortably in the middle of the Ghibli filmography in terms of quality.

I'm really pleased to say that I feel Goro Miyazaki has made a solid beginning in the path to redeeming and proving himself. From up on Poppy Hill was a huge step up from Tales from Earthsea but that stinker really rubbed me the wrong way and I can't say for sure that Goro Miyazaki is a good film-maker just because he's made one great movie after one god awful one. He's sitting on the fence, somewhere between a hack and greatness, with a sharp point wedged between each testicle. To get off this fence and prove he's got what it takes to carry on what his father started is going to be a long and very painful journey. If he makes 2 more excellent films in a row, my mind will start changing.

Now, Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below... I'll just come right out and say it. I was disappointed. Makoto Shinkai also has a lot to prove. I really like him and I think he has the potential to do phenomenal stuff, well MORE phenomenal stuff. Everything he had done up until this movie blew my mind. This one however did not, at all. Okay, maybe at all isn't entirely true. Visually, he's outdone himself yet again. This movie looks incredible. It's one of the best looking animated films I've ever seen, however, the story and the execution was not great. If this had to be a full length feature film, it could of lost a good 40 minutes.

Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below really, really drags at times. It's occasionally very exciting and then it will become very boring just as quickly. The story is too thin to sustain the almost 2 hour long running time. I don't know what he was thinking. To be perfectly honest, he could of used this idea and made another incredible 45-60 minute long short film. That is where I feel Makoto Shinkai excels, in doing short or at least shortER films. That's not to say I'm not open to seeing him do more feature length films but I'll admit I won't be overly excited if/when I hear an announcement for another one from him. He's still pretty new to this. He doesn't have a huge amount of film-making experience and up until now he's made terrific stuff so I won't lose faith in him. All the great directors made at least one stinker in their career. I'm still a fan, but this movie probably won't be getting my attention again.

Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below is a visually stunning movie that relies far too much on it's sexiness to try very hard at being interesting or engaging, not unlike vain humans who try to ride by on their good looks. It might work to begin with but it can't last forever. Consider this a slightly bloated popcorn anime movie.