Tag: Spirit

My Neighbour Totoro 1988 Review

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MyNeighborTotoro

My Neighbour Totoro has become quite an iconic film over the past few years, it has become so popular that it became the logo for Studio Ghibli

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, My Neighbour Totoro’s story is that of a family who have decided to move to a new home they have moved to a fairly quiet location in the countryside, I imagine that they moved here to live a peaceful life style but little did they know that where they have moved to is also a hangout for many different spirits.

In any other film this would usually lead to a scary or spooky movie but surprisingly in this film the spirits are just there and they don’t seem to alarm or bother anyone in the family.

As you may have guessed one of the neighbouring spirits is the huge Totoro who has a surprising resemblance to the Pokemon Snorlax.

TotoroGIF11

snorlax

The two girls Mei and Satsuki discover Totoro and the entire film is essentially them interacting with him and that’s what sort of makes it so good, Totoro is a very peculiar character as he seems very human he likes to take naps, he catches the bus (well a spirit bus, which also a cat) and in general he doesn’t actually do much, he doesn’t have much dialogue so making him a lovable character is mostly about the pacing of his actions and the animators really nailed this one on the head, yeah Totoro doesn’t do much but he is so well animated that every time he smiles, bounces or yawns its hard not to love him and the timing of these actions are its difficult to explain without me just telling you to watch the movie but if you do will see what I mean.

The family are great in this movie the dad is a hard working individual but he is also seen to be a lot of fun in many scenes of the film but by far the best characters are the two sisters, these girls honestly seem like real sisters in real life the older sister can at times be bossy but caring and the younger sister is excitable, very curious and genuinely quite innocent

Like I said not a lot goes on in this movie there is a climax near the end of the film but its nothing too crazy so don’t get your hopes up.

I’m not huge on the music in this film it’s not bad I just don’t think that its very memorable but the animation is really something special, at times the animation looks similar to every other Studio Ghibli film but every now and again something really cool and interesting will show up, everyone loves Totoro and his character design but personally I don’t think anything can top the cat bus its so bizarre that this movie has a bus that is also a cat but it looks so cool that you just really want to ride it.

Cat Bus

My Neighbour Totoro is a special film as its surprisingly brilliant, not a lot goes on in the movie but everything is so well paced and well animated that the entire film is very memorable, the animation and character designs are pretty superb and every character in this film is interesting and likeable, if you ever want to watch a movie that you can chill out too and also appreciate its brilliance then My Neighbour Totoro is the film for you.

Thank you for reading my review of My Neighbour Totoro

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The Care Bears Movie (1985) Review

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Film Cover

First appearing on television screens in 1981 the Care Bears are a group of colourful bears that live in the clouds, each bear is named after a trait and each bear has a symbol on their belly representing this trait.

The Care Bears originally started their debut through TV specials airing between 1983 till 1985. In 1985 the Care Bears were given their own television series which was very popular amongst young children but before the television series was released we were given a movie based completely on the Care Bears toy line.

The movie starts in an orphanage where one of the staff voiced by Mickey Rooney is reading the story of the Care Bears to the children.

Care Bears Mickey Rooney

The Care Bears live in a land of clouds called Carealot, The Care Bears have the ability to travel to earth to help those who don’t care any more, the reason they do this is because the stability of Carealot depends on people on earth caring about each other, while visiting Earth the Care Bears try to befriend two young siblings called Kim and Jason.

Kim and Jason

Kim and Jason have given up about caring for people because both of their Parents left them at an orphanage at a young age, the Care bears want to befriend Kim and Jason to show them that they will not always be alone and to hopefully get them to care again.

Not much later and we are introduced to some new characters a magician and his apprentice Nicholas.

Nicholas

Nicholas is a young boy who has never had a friend in his entire life, this has made him very depressed and angry at the world, an evil spirit trapped inside a book encourages Nicholas to set it free and in exchange it will teach Nicholas how to be more recognised.

A desperate Nicholas agrees to the deal and he uses a key to unlock the book releasing the spirit inside.

The_Evil_Spirit

 

The evil spirit starts teaching Nicholas dark magic which Nicholas uses to turn people against each other and eventually taking all of the care out of the world.

Of course this has massive effects on the stability and the well being of Carealot so the Care Bears quickly investigate and learn about Nicholas and the reasons he is angry at everyone, after quickly realising that all three of these children need people to care about they all decide to head to earth to find Nicholas, but just as they start to transport the transporter is destroyed sending the children and the two Care Bears to a land between worlds.

The remaining Care Bears decide to get aboard a boat and travel down a river in the clouds in the hopes that they will find the children and the missing Care Bears,  they eventually find the children and the other two Care Bears in a new land called the Forest of Feelings, here they meet some new animal friends including Brave Heart Lion, Swift Heart Rabbit, Playful Heart Monkey and Lotsa Heart Elephant.

animalsThe animals join the children and the Care Bears in their quest and they all head out together on a big adventure to save Nicholas from the evil spirit.

The animation is basic to say the least, it looks more like a direct to VHS release than it does a movie that got released into theatres, it’s not terrible though the animation plays very smoothly and the movies use of shadows and shading is very impressive, the only real problem I had with the animation is that most of the time the characters lips don’t sync with what they are saying and this can be very distracting.

carebears

The songs in this movie are just awful, they are all very forgetful and genuinely annoying with lyrics that make very little sense, every song in the movie honestly feels like it’s just there for filler and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

The Care Bears Movie is not one of the best children’s movies I have ever had to sit through, the plot is not very interesting, the animation is fairly basic with the exception of the films use of shadows and shading, the songs are not fun to listen too in the slightest and apart from a pretty cool villain the movie is really bad.

I suggest skipping this one unless you have very young children who you want to keep quiet for an hour.

I hope you enjoyed this review of The Care Bears Movie

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

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