From Up On Poppy Hill

If you've seen Earthsea then you wouldn't be surprised if they did.

Apr 1 - 02:26 PM

Holy crap, what's with the sudden influx of rotten reviews?

Mar 28 - 07:14 PM

Patrick Drazen

"Earthsea" may have been a hot mess onscreen (anime doesn't always do sword & sorcery well yet) and off (there was more attention paid to Goro's blog than to the film). Putting all that aside, this film looks great in the Ghibli realist vein (Whisper of the Heart, Only Yesterday, I Can Hear the Ocean). Dubs are seldom as good as the original, but the amazing cast for this one speaks to the respect Hollywood has for Ghibli. By all means see it and decide for yourself.

Mar 24 - 04:57 PM

Well, at the time this comment is being posted it is sitting at an 86%. I think those two rotten reviewers maybe just had a bad day. :P I've heard it was extremely popular with the older generation in Japan (which makes sense, considering the time and setting). I've seen it subbed and I can assure you that it is a wonderful movie. In fact, I'd say it ranks in Ghibli's top five even. After a shaky start with Earthsea (even though I personally thought it was OKAY), I think Goro has finally found his footing and has shown that he has potential to live up to his father. And after being assured that he can make a good movie, I'm actually starting to get excited for his Samurai period piece.

Mar 14 - 04:57 PM

WS Shannon

I'm very look forward to watching From Up On Poppy Hill!

Unfortunately I didn't like Earthsea though, I didn't think it was horrible, but still quite bad. Both the animation and score was beautiful, but the story dragged along at such a slow pace and nothing much even happened. I'd forgive this if it had good and memorable characters, but the characters were all boring (but some had interesting backgrounds). It lacked any life or humor which could have appealed to kids, but instead went with a more depressing atmosphere to match its depressing plot and characters. I give Tales from Earthsea one thing, I did appreciate the young boy and girl's relationship avoiding the romantic trope and a more intriguing and original relationship they shared together. It made them a lot more compelling than some love story.

I loved the Earthsea books, and though Tales from Earthsea didn't follow them well I would have forgiven it if it had another good story to tell in this world, but it didn't. Goro tried doing with Earthsea what Miyazaki did with Princess Mononoke, but I wish his father told him to start with smaller scoped projects (and I do realize the two directors have a staggering relationship).

But I see Goro is getting some great reviews here, 88 % so far with only two rotten reviews and one of them unfairly comparing him to his father. I think this should have been the project he started off with, not Earthsea.

Mar 15 - 11:16 AM

Aw, now there are 4 rottens. :( I feel like some critics are being a bit unfair to the film, acting like no fantasy is a negative in a Ghibli film.

Mar 21 - 08:33 PM

I'm pretty sure the complaints have to do with the lack of engaging characters and abrupt ending... >_>

Mar 22 - 10:50 AM

I'm pretty sure they're not because I've read them. If anything the characters are the best thing about the film. The ending was purposely left open to interpretation, whether you like that or not. People always seem to complain about unclear resolutions, It's like no one has an imagination anymore.

Mar 24 - 10:36 AM

I saw the movie today. While I liked the characters, they lacked the charm of, say, a Chihiro or an Ashitaka. They're very...basic, and that's the problem.

Also, I doubt it has to with being left to interpretation. I don't mind ambiguity, and yet I found that the spoilerifc reveal was frustratingly underwhelming.

By the way, my local paper DID call them unengaging. So there's that much...

Mar 24 - 03:33 PM

Well to each his own I guess. But until you give me an example of this I can't really agree with you.

Mar 28 - 07:12 PM

Perhaps you should read Ebert's review, which was a marginal thumbs down (i.e. 2.5/4, 3/4 being his lowest recommendation.) I'll even quote him:

"This was a day I didn't see coming. The latest film from Japan's Studio Ghibli, which sets the world standard for animation, is a disappointment. Directed by Goro Miyazaki, in his first collaboration with his father, the legendary Hayao, "From Up on Poppy Hill" (2011) centers on two likable and perfectly straightforward college students who do nothing very extraordinary and are in a platonic romance."

Opening paragraph, by the way.

As for the reviews, be thankful Goro is even being praised at all. And 78% isn't even that bad anyway, especially when compared to the 42% he got with his last movie. It's a sign that he's improving, even if he hasn't quite found his niche yet...

Mar 28 - 07:39 PM

"centers on two likable and perfectly straightforward college students" They don't sound like bad characters to me. And how could he make such a mistake as to call them college students? They're in high school. And I've already read that review. Although Ebert loves most of Ghibli's films, we all do. Other than his reviews of those films and a few other exceptions I'm not so fond of him as a reviewer in general. I don't think you can bash this movie for being what it set out to accomplish, a quiet and simple love story where not much happens. It was the same idea with Arrietty. And it's at an 81 now. But I do agree that he is improving, I'm hopeful that his Samurai film will be his masterpiece and him finally becoming a truly great filmmaker. I don't think he was a bad directer because of Earthsea, I only feel that he was just not ready. It takes time to find greatness, even Hayao himself didn't start directing films until decades after having small animation and storyboarding gigs at other companies. Goro didn't have that experience when making Earthsea, so it's completely understandable for me that he failed at first.

Mar 29 - 06:44 PM

Kenneth Elliott

Maybe my concern of Goro's inability to fill his father's shoes is a little premature, as the film is currently 86% fresh, a very good sign. True, there will never be another Hayao Miyazaki, but I'm glad to hear that critics are enjoying Poppy Hill on the same level as many other Ghibli productions.

I hope the film opens somewhere near my area.

Mar 14 - 03:55 PM

Rated NCC-1701

I'll bash the distributor for never bothering to show this anywhere near me. Had my high hopes dashed like so much bath salt when Arriety was advertised in my area but never materialized. Why isn't Disney (and specifically Ghibli's #1 fan Lassiter) handling this US release?

Mar 14 - 10:49 AM

Because GKids is.

Apparently though, this isn't even the official release. That's not for another two weeks...

Mar 14 - 10:29 PM

It's at 82% now...

Mar 14 - 08:49 AM

I could care less for who's directing it as long as it looks good, but Hayao would have made it better to be honest. Plus, I'm just glad Studio Ghibli is still bothering to give us more hand-drawn films (I'm tired of all these shitty CGI & Pixar movies [save for Tangled]).

Mar 12 - 07:02 PM

Studio Ghibli is only giving us hand-drawn films because CGI never really caught on in Japan. And believe me, plenty of hand-drawn animation is sh*t...

Mar 12 - 07:25 PM

If only America was as smart as Japan's culture. oh, no need for me to believe you, as a fan of animation & an animator as well, i KNOW there are plenty of shitty 2D movies; but as shitty as some hand-drawn animated movies can be, I'll still appreciate them more over something that was done only for the cash-cow.

Mar 13 - 02:54 AM

Troy Solomon

You seriously need to brush up on your definition on what a cash grab is. A cash grab is someone who wants to make a profit off of someone Else's success in a fast and cheep manner. And I hate to break it to you jackass but Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios don't fit that definition no matter how much you want to convince us that it is. Yes CGI is efficient to produce but that does not mean its lazy. You can't just open a computer animation software on your laptop and press the "make a cartoon" button and let the computer do the whole work for you, it doesn't work like that. An average CGI film takes about 4 or 5 years to make just like a hand drawn film. If I were you I would keep your biased opinions to yourself and post your thoughts on something like 4chan. But then again your not going to bother reading through all of this and call me an idiot for not believing that CGI is "shit" and is made only for people with ADD and declare that hand drawn animation is the only way to make an animated cartoon for kids

Mar 13 - 03:41 PM

Oh, that's one definition of cash-grab: but cash-grab is also done in CGI animation because since practically everyone, especially younger kids, respond more to that form of 'animation' it's he reason it's used more than & why quickly other forms of animation aren't done anymore. Just look at Disney's "Frozen" (AKA the Snow Queen): it was going to be done in a hand-drawn fashion, but it was instantly reverted to CGI. why? Because like i said, people will respond to it being CG than 2D & it will instantly profit more in the box office! Another reason? Because CG is LESS expensive to work on, despite the higher budget. Fewer animator's are needed for that method, & for 2D it is more time consuming & expensive to get through.

Don't give me that "it isn't lazy bullshit" because from an article that I've read on the future of animation as well as common sense is that CGI is the second laziest form of animation animators use (flash animation being the first & cheapest). Since CGI is easier to handle with all those dynamic camera moving perspectives, filling in colors & textures easier, & the fact that once the model is done you only have to save it & it's there forever to use again & again, it's easy to see as to how it's lazy. Also, as technology improves, people can always go back to add more details & stuff they couldn't do to that one character. Since hand-drawn animation requires endless piles of paper to create a perspective like the ballroom scene in Beauty & the Beast, & then start from scratch to make a completely different movie, animators find that a hassle so they stick with CGI (whip-lashings to them). It takes countless excruciating hours to model something & then another countless hours with tons of technical crap to make a character do something so simple as a gesture (and that's from experience).

And I don't give a fuck how long the average CGI film takes to make (and FYI a hand-drawn film takes much less than 2 years with the proper amount of workers). I care about a film with characters that look beautiful, I can relate to, & remember for the rest of my life (something shitty companies like Pixar have yet to do). 2D & stop-motion are perfect examples of nightmare-labor effort (ParaNorman being the best example to date), CGI is just another way to get easier box office success. And like I said, even if the movie was 2D & turned out like crap, I would still respect & appreciate more for being 2D (Tangled being the only CG film that I cannot picture better in 2D).

Mar 15 - 02:02 AM

Troy Solomon

Have fum trying to prove that CGI is evil and that Pixar is made up of a bunch of retards who don't know how to make a good story and insult kids' intelligence just because none of their movies have the same spark as Disney. People are totally going to be on your side after saying shit like that. Your dead to me man.

Mar 15 - 06:59 AM

Since when did any of Pixar's films ever have any spark near Disney's?

Mar 15 - 11:47 PM

Since the mid-90's, when they started outperforming Disney critically and financially.

Then again, it's no use arguing with you, so I'll just drop it altogether...

Mar 16 - 05:37 PM

Pixar had & has yet to make any movies that are better than Disney's stuff, especially in the 90s era, so I don't know what you're talking about.

Mar 17 - 03:17 AM

Whatever you say, man...

Mar 17 - 06:52 AM

Heather Cuthill

I enjoyed it very much, and I also really liked Tales of Earthsea, not necessarily as an adaptation of LeGuin's work but as a stand-alone movie. I think people need to judge the son on his own merits and quit comparing him to his father.

Mar 12 - 01:00 PM

It's still a little early to say.

Personally, I've heard mixed things about it going way back to 2011. I'm sure people have liked it, but that doesn't automatically make it a good movie.

Even so, I hold the rights to reserve my judgement until I've actually seen it. Especially since it looks like Goro Miyazaki is honest-to-God trying here...

Mar 11 - 09:21 PM

Bruce Clare

From my POV Goro did pretty good here. If you look at what people are knocking the film for, it's the thin story. There's no sense of risk in the romance, and the sense of destiny didn't translate very well. And guess what -the story was written by Miyazaki senior, not Goro.

Mar 30 - 08:14 PM