Movie Review: Mary and the Witch's Flower

Mary and the Witch’s Flower *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Hiromasa Yonebayashi.

Written by: Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Riko Sakaguchi based on the novel by Mary Stewart.

Starring: Ruby Banrhill (Mary), Kate Winslet (Madame Mumblechook, Jim Broadbent (Doctor Dee), Ewen Bremner (Flanagan), Lynda Baron (Great Aunt Charlotte), Louis Ashbourne Serkis (Peter), Morwenna Banks (Mrs. Banks), Teresa Gallagher (The Red Haired Witch), Rasmus Hardicker (Zebedee).

 

Mary and the Witch’s Flower is the first film from Studio Ponoc – the Japanese animation studio founded shortly after the infamous Studio Ghibli decided to stop making movies after the retirement of their two most famous directors – Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Luckily for us all, the shuttering of Ghibli appears to have been short lived – Miyazaki is working on another film for release in 2020 (Takahata died earlier this year). Many of those involved with making Mary and the Witch’s Flower were once employed by Ghibli – including director Hiromasa Yonebayashi – who directed The Secret World of Arietty and When Marnie Was There (which was to be Ghibli’s final film). You can tell that the film was made by people who worked for Ghibli – the animation style is similar, as is the storytelling. In fact, perhaps the highest compliment I can pay to this film is that had you told me it was a Ghibli film, I would have believed you.

 

The story focuses on Mary (Ruby Barnhill), a red headed girl, staying with her Great Aunt Charlotte in the English countryside, waiting for both her parents to join them, and for school to open in a week. For now, she’s got nothing to do – and apparently all the other children (save for a boy named Peter, who Mary does not like, for no real reason) won’t return until school starts. So Mary basically spends her days doing nothing. One day, she follows a black cat into the forest, and as if her named was Alice, and she was following a white rabbit, she discovers a magical world just on the outskirts of ours. She ends up at a school for Witches, run by Madame Mumblechook (Kate Winslet) – and for reasons she doesn’t fully understand, she is able to do more with magic than she should be able to do with no training. All of this will, we assume, come back to the beginning of the film that involved another young, red haired girl, running away from fire and fury – and spreading a blue flower – that Mary, of course, discovers, around the countryside.

 

Mary and the Witch’s Flower takes a little while to get going after its explosive opening scene. There isn’t much conflict in the films first half – and everyone seems nice, even Doctor Dee (voiced by Jim Broadbent) who doesn’t look nice. Of course, eventually, conflict will arise – and magical duels will be had, although interestingly for a movie about magic, the basic message is that magic isn’t needed at all. Little Mary is smart and brave and strong, and she wins not by being the chosen one – not by being better at magic than everyone – but simply by being smarter. She has everything she needed the whole time.

 

The animation is, of course, beautiful throughout – and the action sequences in the film are as good as anything you will see in a Ghibli film. This is Yonebayashi’s best film as a director so far – it’s not quite as ponderous and sad as When Marnie Was There, and doesn’t feel as much as a rehash as Arietty did. Still, there is something about the film that I don’t think ever quite rises to the level of the best Ghibli films. Part of it is that the plot takes so long to really kick into gear. This can be true of Ghibli as well – but usually there is something else to hold your interest other than the beautiful animation. Miyazaki didn’t always need a plot at all (look at My Neighbor Tortoro) to make something moving and profound – but that isn’t really what this film wants to do either. The film is a fun and entertaining film the entire way through – which bodes well for more from Studio Ponoc. But perhaps too it’s just a little too thin to be truly great. Still, until we get more from Studio Ghibli, I’ll gladly watch anything this gifted team of artists come up with.

Movie Review: When Marnie Was There

When Marnie Was There
Directed by: Hiromasa Yonebayashi   
Written by: Keiko Niwa & Masashi Ando & Hiromasa Yonebayashi based on the novel by Joan G. Robinson.
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld (Anna), Kiernan Shipka (Marnie), Geena Davis (Yoriko Sasaki), John C. Reilly (Kiyomasa Oiwa), Raini Rodriguez (Nobuko Kadoya), Ellen Burstyn (Nan), Kathy Bates (Mrs. Kadoya), Vanessa Williams (Hisako), Catherine O'Hara (Elderly Lady).

When Marnie Was There is the last film – for now anyways – from Japan’s famed Studio Ghibli. who is responsible for giving the world the work of Hayao Miyazaki, as well as many other great animated films. The great Miyazaki, whose name is synonymous with Ghibli, went out on a high note two years ago with The Wind Rises, and the almost as great Isao Takahata, had one final great film in him as well, with last year’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Given those standards, it’s impossible not to be somewhat let down that When Marnie Was There, from Hiromasa Yonehayashi, is Ghibli’s last film. It is, like Yonehayashi’s first film, The Secret World of Arietty, a relatively minor effort when considered alongside their truly great films. Yet the film is undeniably still a Ghibli film –with the unmistakable gentleness, and beautiful animation we have come to expect from them. It may not be great Ghibli – but even minor Ghibli has its charms.

The movie is about a young teenager named Anna, whose parents died years ago, and battling major depression – not the normal teenage girl depression in movies like this, but a depression that verges of being suicidal. She has no friends, she barely speaks to anyone, and despite her foster mother’s best efforts, she cannot seem to help Anna. The foster mother decides that what Anna needs is time away – and sends her to the seashore to live with her Aunt and Uncle for the summer. She does this under the guise that the sea air will be good for Anna’s asthma, but in reality, I think Anna just needs a change of scenery for a while. When she arrives at the seashore, she is almost immediately drawn to a mansion – said to be haunted, and only accessible by boat. It’s here she meets Marnie – another young teenager, who is Anna’s opposite in almost every way – from physical appearance to personality. The two girls develop a close friendship – each giving the other what they are lacking at home.

The film is a gentle ode to female friendship that moves at such a leisurely pace at times it doesn’t feel like it’s moving at all. It’s the type of film, like many of Ghibli’s films that is best viewed as a child may see it – with innocence, rather than adult cynicism, which could kill a gentle film like this (I know some saw the trailer and wondered if it was about a lesbian relationship – which is not). The film is a blend of fantasy and reality, only really revealing what is what in the last act, and even then, perhaps not entirely. Like all of Ghibli’s films, the animation is beautiful from start to finish – a film that doesn’t try to blind you with its colors or movement, like much American animation does, but has the same kind of gentle look and feel as the story.

For many, When Marnie Was There will move too slowly. I fully admit, it did to me feel at times as if the story wasn’t moving forward for fairly long stretches. But Ghibli has never put that sort of emphasis on constant action or plot, but likes to take it’s time getting anywhere. Even by those generous standards though, When Marnie Was There is slow moving – and I cannot help but feel the movie’s finale lacks a little bit of the emotional impact it could have had had it gotten there a little quicker.

It’s sad to think that Studio Ghibli won’t be making another movie for a while – perhaps ever, no one is really sure. Perhaps it was necessary – after all, between them Miyazaki and Takahata directed 14 of Ghibli’s 20 features, so their retirement was going to change the studio anyway. Still, even if Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Goro Miyazaki (Hayao’s son), who have each made 2 films for Ghibli, were not quite up to the level of their predecessors, their films are still beautiful, and I wish each was given more of an opportunity to grow. Maybe they will get that chance somewhere – but for now anyway, it won’t be at Ghibli. When Marnie Was There marks the end of an era, I wish didn’t have to end – and that by itself makes the ending rather emotional – and appropriate. 

Movie Review: The Secret World of Arietty

The Secret World of Arietty *** ½
Directed by: Hiromasa Yonebayashi.
Written by: Hayao Miyazaki & Keiko Niwa based on the novel by Mary Norton.
Starring: Bridgit Mendler (Arrietty), Will Arnett (Pod), David Henrie (Shawn), Amy Poehler (Homily), Moises Arias (Spiller), Carol Burnett (Hara), Gracie Poletti (Aunt Jessica), Dale Sison (Harachi).

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greatest filmmakers animation has ever seen. Yet, at more than 70 years old, we may have to accept the fact that he may never direct another feature again. The amount of time and effort, and loving attention to detail that fills every frame of his films, is perhaps too much for someone who just wants to enjoy retirement. Miyazaki however did conceive, plan and co-write The Secret Life of Arietty, and even if it doesn’t quite have the same magic that his best films – like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away – it comes close. And in a world where almost all American animated films have a similar, computer generated look and feel, and often appeal to the lowest common denominator, it is refreshing to see an intelligent animated film aimed at kids, yet doesn’t talk down to them.

Based on Mary Norton’s beloved kids book The Borrowers, The Secret Life of Arietty centers on the title character and her family, all only a couple of inches tall, who live under a house inhabited by humans. They “borrow” things that the humans above them discard in order to survive. Families of these borrowers have been living there for generations, but Arietty and her family may be the only ones left – they certainly do not see any others around them. They stay out of view of the human world – and like it that way. Arietty is finally old enough to go on her first “borrowing” with her father.

Into the human family above comes a sickly boy named Shawn who is resting up in preparation for heart operation. He sees Arietty fleeting upon his arrival – and goes looking for her. Not out of malice, but out of genuine curiosity. The housekeeper, Hara, on the other hand isn’t quite as nice as Shawn. When she suspects that little people are afoot, she wants to capture them, not help them.

The film certainly has the look of a Miyazaki film – which isn’t surprising when you consider that director Hiromasa Yonebayashi has been an animator for Miyazaki for years. The outdoor scenes invoke the same sense of reverence for nature that has become a Miyazaki tradition. The indoor scenes, with the massive size compared to the small borrowers finds a sense of wonder in the ordinary that a movie like this needs.

A hallmark of Miyazaki, and really a lot of anime, has been the strong female heroine, who doesn’t need a wacky animal sidekick or prince charming to come in so she can fall in love. There is a strange, almost innocent romantic longing between Shawn and Arietty, yet for obvious reasons, it is not a typical romance, although they do grow to love each other.

 As I mentioned, the movie doesn’t quite hit the heights of Miyazaki’s best films. Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky and Nausicca, are truly magical films that are beautiful, wondrous and narratively complex. The Secret Life of Arietty gets the look and feel of Miyazaki’s films almost perfect, but the story itself, as wonderful as it is, does have more than its share of lulls in it. And yet, this is still likely to be among the best animated films of 2012. It’s not really Miyazaki, but it reminds you enough of the master’s work, that I really did not mind.