With being a fan of anime, I've come to being a huge fan of films by Studio Ghibli. Over the years they've been making films, I've always been fond of their works because they have such beautiful animation and story telling, that all you can do is just BEG for more of it. Ghibli has always been an ideal studio of animation that I hope one day to voice act for one of their movies. Recently, they've released their newest film, dubbed by Disney, "The Secret World of Arrietty".
"The Secret World of Arrietty", based on the book "The Borrowers", tells the story of a young boy named Sho, or Shawn, who is going to be recieving heart surgery soon. Since his parents are divorced, he is taken to the house where his mother grew up in. While staying at said house with his caretaker, Haru, he sees the a small Borrower named Arrietty, and wants to get to know her better, since he's been told many stories about the little people by his mother and grandpa. However, as curiosity gets the better of Sho, it leaves Haru more suspicious about the tales of the Borrowers, and tries to get hard evidence of their existence, even going as far as to capture Arrietty's mother. For what the film gives, it's nothing TOO exciting, like the other Ghibli films, but I can definitely say that it works. One of the things I DO expect from Ghibli is a fairly decent story. Thankfully, I got something gracefully enjoyable, and it really does build sadness on some parts.
The characters in this movie are well developed. Arrietty has a naive personality to her, but she has a good heart. She's strong, determined, and tries not to get into TOO much trouble, but it does tend to backfire. Plus, their discover isn't done by her curiosity, so it really does make it different from what other films have done in the past. Comparing her personality to a Disney character like Simba from "The Lion King", can show you exactly what I mean. Arrietty's parents are also likable. You got the mother, whose very cautious about being found out, and surviving, but also has a passion for decorative atmosphere. Plus, with Amy Poehler voicing her, it really surprised me that she was this good of a voice actor. The father, being the responsible one, who suggests and does what's needed to be right for him and the family, is done well too. Haru, the caretaker, is basically the curious one who believes in the tales she's been told of the Borrowers, and does what she can to catch them. It is shown, that sometimes people can go crazy over certain tales, espeicially when they had evidence. As for the character of Sho good in terms of character, and you do sometimes feel some tension for him, due to being sick, and the tender moments of the film really show that.
Now apparently critics have been saying that his voice was too much like a sick 20 year old, instead of a young teenager. Frankly, I have to disagree with that. I've met people around that age who talk with a voice like that. It's kind of like what they said about the dubbing of "Ponyo" and "Spirited Away", critiquing it for having celebrity voices in it. But, no one complained about it with Princess Mononoke? I mean, sure people could argue with "Oh, it's Disney, they're money hungry monsters," or "The voice acting was bland and boring, and I could tell whose voice it was," or any of that crap. Just because it has celebrity voices, doesn't make it anywhere close to bad. All that matters is if it works for the character that the actor/actress voices for. In "Spirited Away," I didn't mind Jason Marsden and Daveigh Chase as Chiharu and Haku. I found them good to begin with, and I still do today. In "Ponyo," I didn't mind Liam Neeson as Fujimoto, but then again, I'm a fan of Liam Neeson to begin with, so who can blame me. I also didn't mind Tina Fey as the mother, Betty White as a friend of Sosuke, or anything else that was like that. Hell, I practically LOVED Ponyo and Sosuke voiced by the younger siblings of Disney's crappiest singers. In fact, I think that they're actually more talented than them! My point being, it doesn't matter if it's a celebrity voice, as long as it works well with the character, and you know the consistancy.
Now the one thing that I'm obviously going to praise, is the animation. God damn is it amazing. It felt so REFRESHING to see some fantastic Japanese animation on the big screen again. I really do enjoy the pacing that the film has with it's animation and timing, letting it embrace itself and let the beauty of it all sync into it. This movie really does show a lot of passion when it comes to Ghibli animation.
Overall, "The Secret World of Arrietty" is by far my favorite movie of the year. It might not be there for long, but I'm guarunteeing that it'll be up there, with "The Woman in Black" in my top 5 favorites this year. I highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys great animation.
Rating: 5/5
10/10
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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
I've stated many times in the past, that I don't read comic books, and I've given reasons why. They're boring, they don't look appealing at times, and as good as their storylines might seem, I just don't get that invested in them. I grew up on manga, and I'm sticking to that. But just because I don't read comic books, doesn't quite mean I watch the adaptions that they turn into. I enjoy the movies that they become, and I watch the occassional cartoons that they become. I think the one I've become the most invested in, and still to this day, is Batman. He's DC's icon, and it shows WHY people would turn over from Marvel for them. Because he's the goddamn Batman! However, Marvel HAS had it's share of some great films in the past, and I've come to enjoy them, even if others don't. One of them, being "Ghost Rider".
The origninal "Ghost Rider" movie, starring Nicholas Cage and Eve Mendes, tells the story of Johnny Blaze. Johnny's a daredevil, and one of the greatest motorcyclists in the world. However, when his dad's about to die, he makes a deal with the devil, and signs a contract in blood, to keep his dad alive, and have a supernatural being, known as 'the rider' inside him. With this power, he is offered to get his soul back, if he defeats the son of Mephisto, Blackheart. For what the film was, it was pretty entertaining, and with Nicholas Cage as a motorcyclist whose skull sets on fire, and kills people with a chain and tons of other stuff, it was kind of badass at times...but it was SO mediocre. By which, I mean, it was not only an average comic book movie, but just an average movie all together, instead of being what I was expecting. The director of the film was Mark Steven Johnson, who in previous time, had directed "Daredevil", my all time favorite Marvel movie. I had expected a lot from "Ghost Rider", but it was just a let down. But that didn't mean I hated the film, I just felt that it could've been better.
Now we're going to talk about it's sequel, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance". So how does it turn out? Badass, and just friggin brilliant! This more than makes up for the last film!
In "Spirit of Vengeance," Johnny is now struggling to control his curse. However, a priest named Moreau comes to make a deal with him, to break free of the curse. He has to find a boy named Danny, and protect him from the devil, Roarke, who gave him the curse to begin with. Now Johnny must let "the rider" loose, have Danny's mother, Nadya, help him out, as well as deal with Roarke's new henchman, Blackout. Now in the film, we do know more about what "the rider" is, and it's pretty interesting. It really did show itself to find ways to surpass the first film, and it does have some very enjoyable fight scenes and some funny dialogue.
HOWEVER, I found it had somethings in it, that could've been used more. I mean, this film has the Highlander himself, Christopher Lambert, as a head monk. He had said in an interview, that he had to go through sword training and shave his head for the role, yet he doesn't even have 5 minutes of screen time. Yes, I counted. He had under 5 minutes. Movie, if you're going to have a great actor, ESPECIALLY the Highlander himself, in your film, USE HIM!
Okay, I'm going into too much of the bad, so I'll focus on the good. First off, there's Nic Cage. By god, he's still awesome! He really did show off a lot of strong potential in this film, and it's really nice to see him work with more Marvel films, because he's not that bad an actor, and his portrayl as Ghost Rider is neat! Granted, it's not as good as his work from "Drive Angry", but this film came pretty damn close. Ciaren Hinds, who was recently in "The Woman in Black" plays Roarke, and he did pretty well in this film. Though, I was still expecting a bigger climactic battle, between him and Ghost Rider. That, and the fight between Ghost Rider and Blackout. That would've worked so much better. But I will admit, the scene with Blackout driving a pickup-truck and trying to eat was pretty funny.
Overall, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" has about everything that was good for a movie! Even if it has some problems you find, it makes up for it TENFOLD!
Rating: 8/10
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