From Up On Poppy Hill Reviews

There's definitely enough here to provide a quick fix for older Studio Ghibli fans, though children will probably be bored.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The charming and nostalgic "From Up on Poppy Hill" is as lushly illustrated and vividly realized as memory itself.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

"Poppy Hill" proves to be more than just a visual feast. Its seemingly slight storyline has a warm emotional resonance, tapping into both the uncertainty of a Japan caught between past and future.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Goro Miyazaki has a style that's both more painterly and more cinematic than the cartoonish norm, while his father's screenplay is a classic coming-of-age story that seems suited for a live-action remake.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

In the wisdom of this artfully rendered film, Umi and Shun - and the viewer - come to learn that the past and the future should go hand in hand, that the best way to move forward is to reflect, and respect, what came before.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

A wonderfully gorgeous and nostalgic film whose story doesn't live up to its look.

Full Review | Original Score: 69/100

The story of a girl grappling with first love, the absence of her parents and the anxieties of an on-rushing future in 1963 Yokohama has all the earmarks of a Miyazaki classic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

It's strange to see so much focus on the details of the backgrounds, which are exquisitely rendered, when there is so little attention to the expressiveness of the characters.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

The film's perfectly fine, but it's not a patch on "Spirited Away," "My Neighbor Totoro," "Princess Mononoke," and other Studio Ghibli classics.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

The animation is pretty and clean, reminiscent of other Studio Ghibli films like "Whisper of the Heart," but never achieves wondrous artistry.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

It's a minor work. There's no argument around that. Still, it's got a good heart, and likable characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

As in so many Studio Ghibli films, the tension is between renovation and cherishing of tradition.The movie is staged during a beautifully chosen moment of transition-the months right before the Tokyo Olympiad.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Like his old man, the younger Miyazaki favors limited character animation and luscious water colors. Unfortunately, he lacks his father's storytelling skills.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Rest assured, the younger Miyazaki has clearly earned his stars, as Poppy Hill offers just the same intimate, ultimately life-affirming kind of storytelling we've come to expect from the family name.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

This is a gentle film, hand-drawn with irresistible colors, that exudes nostalgia in a lovely way.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Although simpler and less mysterious than the great Hayao Miyazaki movies, the gently melancholic From Up on Poppy Hill is still a must see at a time when family entertainment is too often synonymous with blandness.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

[A] study of how the tolls of war reverberate through generations.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Poppy Hill is more a short story than a feature, almost unbelievably optimistic, but it offers a surprising, innocent window on an era usually associated with nuclear anxieties, cultural neuroses, and juvenile delinquents.

Full Review

Not the most enthralling Studio Ghibli animated feature, but the restrained story of a boy, a girl, and their beloved high school campus, circa 1963 in Yokohama, nevertheless creeps up on us emotionally in the best Ghibli fashion.

Full Review

Both genuinely emotional and blithely engaging.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4