Monday, March 25, 2013

Interesting when Studio Ghibli is more real than our standard CGI schlock.

Original airdate: 3 - 18 -13
After another unexpected off-week, we return to the airwaves with thick cynicism cloying like the phlegm in our throats. It had been a rough week, and we barely had the stamina to opine. The Boom rehashed the shitty Oz movie he saw last week before we both took a look at Studio Ghibli's From Up on Poppy Hill, the sophomore effort from Goro Miyazaki and his impossible-to-fill shoes. After the abysmal disappointment of his Earthsea film, I was really worried for Goro, who wisely toned down his content and ambition for this film, which was more akin to earlier, non-fantasy Ghibli fare like Only Yesterday. The animation certainly improved tenfold from Earthsea, with a focus on detail and minutiae that defines Ghibli as a dominant animation studio. The story, however, of semi-forbidden love and heritage between two (barely) post-adolescents, doesn't quite hit the emotional singularity in quite so possessing a fashion, but this was a step up in what will hopefully be a fruitful and unhampered-by-expectation film career.

We heard music from the following:

Porco Rosso, 1995 - Joe Hisaishi
To Live and Die in L.A., 1985 - Wang Chung
Trainspotting, 1995 - Various
The Wiz, 1978 - Various

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