Hiromasa Yonebayashi
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Spirited Away (2001)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
influenced When Marnie Was There (2014), The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
Visuals Themes
While the anime art style and visual storytelling that endeared Ghibli to millions is still present, and arguably its strongest yet in terms of consistency, When Marnie Was There is a minor entry compared to the likes of Spirited Away, or even last year’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
Essentially the Japanese Disney (but arguably more elegant in its storytelling and artistry), Studio Ghibli produced the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, among many others.
Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away”) is the biggest and most prolific member of the studio, who are shuttering, though maybe not for eternity.
Ever since its creation 30 years ago, Studio Ghibli has been making magic out of the moving image, so much so that it’s not a stretch to claim that today—due to the foundation laid by directors Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies)—it’s become one of the most beloved animation studios in the world.
A far cry from the fanciful set-pieces of Spirited Away, this tale still flirts with the fantastical – even the Gothic – with its story of a troubled adolescent becoming obsessed with an abandoned mansion and the similarly aged girl who lives there; a girl who may be a spirit from decades past.
No, it’s not as big or elaborate or fantasticated as Hayao Miyazaki’s best known films like Spirited Away (2001) or Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
influenced When Marnie Was There (2014), The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
Themes
The retired legend cowrote “The Secret Life of Arrietty,” the previous film by “Marnie” director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, whose films are far more modest and sneaky than his, adopting fantastical story hooks — little people in “Arietty,” the perhaps spectral imaginary friend of a lonely girl here — and treating them in ways that, compared to “Spirited Away” or “Princess Mononoke,” almost qualify as mundane, if no less enchanting.
Miyazaki, the legendary animator behind the classics Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl's Moving Castle, announced his retirement last year.
If it doesn’t measure up to the studio’s best and most fantastical films, notably such Hayao Miyazaki classics as “Spirited Away,” “Princess Mononoke” and “My Neighbor Totoro,” it has some of their essential spirit and carries the sad, sweet flavor of farewell.
They have given moviegoers around the world so many incredible gifts such as “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” and “Princess Mononoke.”
The BBC just did a new live action version last year, and now the filmmaking folks at Studio Ghibli -- responsible for films such as "Princess Mononoke," "Spirited Away" and "Ponyo" -- have tackled Norton's tale.
The studio has famously produced Miyazaki's great animations "Spirited Away," "Princess Mononoke," " Howl's Moving Castle ," and " Ponyo " as well as the rare film by someone else.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
influenced The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
Themes
They have given moviegoers around the world so many incredible gifts such as “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” and “Princess Mononoke.”
A flat take on Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers [ Amazon U.S. ] [ Amazon Canada ] [ Amazon U.K. ], about tiny humans who live secretly in symbiosis with normal-sized people, it pales next to Ghibli masterpieces such as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro... partly because it fails to give any sort of Ghibli spin on a story that has been adapted to film so many times already.
Though The Secret World of Arrietty echoes themes and situations in other Miyazaki films — in particular, My Neighbor Totoro — it's the aging anime master's protege Hiromasa Yonebayashi who has taken up directing duties.
Slow, calm and quiet with beautifully detailed imagery, the Japanese fantasy may not be the greatest achievement of Studio Ghibli, which has given us the likes of My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, but its a real charmer with a big imaginationthe sort of film children need to grow up on.
Adapted by Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki from the popular British children’s book The Borrowers, Arrietty combines the bold, mature qualities of prior Ghibli fantasy outings like Spirited Away and Nausicaa with the droll humor of My Neighbor Totoro, resulting in a movie that is simultaneously thrilling and whimsically adorable.
Whereas Hiroyuki Morita was cribbing various plot details and scenes from Miyazaki’s Spirited Away with his debut film The Cat Returns, Yonebayashi’s Arrietty is a deliberate cribbing of the themes and techniques Miyazaki utilized in My Neighbor Totoro (it certainly doesn’t hurt that Miyazaki is credited as a co-screenwriter for the film).
Epic feels overlong and overly reminiscent of several other animated movies, like The Secret World of Arrietty , Happy Feet , and Antz .
The film also hews to a premise — tiny people living a clandestine existence under the noses of full-sized humans — that has been similarly employed by “The Secret World of Arrietty,” “Arthur and the Invisibles ” and “ The Borrowers ” over the past several years.
There’s a lot of familiar elements in “Epic” – from recent movies like “Avatar” and “The Secret World of Arrietty” to earlier films like “Fern Gully” and “The Borrowers.”
The Wind Rises made for a satisfying farewell to Ghibli’s resident mastermind Hayao Miyazaki, and When Marnie Was There makes for a similarly apt tribute to the studio’s legacy.
By no means an essential addition to the Ghibli oeuvre, “Marnie” nevertheless represents yet another splendid escape from the increasingly strenuous glut of computer-animated offerings, this one designed to serve as family entertainment after the more adult-skewing likes of “The Wind Rises” and “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” (and it’s notably the first produced without the involvement of either Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, who directed those two other films, respectively).
It isn’t even as expansive as Miyazaki’s last film, The Wind Rises (2013).
Studio founders Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises) and Isao Takahata (The Tale of Princess Kaguya) took their bows in 2013, and so responsibility for the final ever Ghibli film falls on the shoulders of two-time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Arrietty).
Ghibli should probably have closed its doors after either Miyazaki’s “The Wind Rises” or co-founder Isao Takahata’s gorgeous, hand-drawn “Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” both of which are highly original works and very close to animation masterpieces.
Sure, the recent Hayao Miyazaki wonder, The Wind Rises, or Isao Takahata’s lovely, poetic Tale of the Princess Kaguya might have proved more significant swan songs, but this dreamy, gentle extrapolation of author Joan G. Robinson’s decidedly English ghost story reinforces some of the smaller, subtler delights Ghibli specialized in over its long, glorious career.
Ever since its creation 30 years ago, Studio Ghibli has been making magic out of the moving image, so much so that it’s not a stretch to claim that today—due to the foundation laid by directors Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies)—it’s become one of the most beloved animation studios in the world.
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
influenced When Marnie Was There (2014), The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
Visuals Plot
Like "Arrietty," "Marnie" was suggested to Yonebayashi by Studio Ghibli's eminence grise Hayao Miyazaki , and like Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle," it is based on a novel by a British fantasy writer, in this case Joan G. Robinson.
No, it’s not as big or elaborate or fantasticated as Hayao Miyazaki’s best known films like Spirited Away (2001) or Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).
Miyazaki, the legendary animator behind the classics Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl's Moving Castle, announced his retirement last year.
That company’s films — “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Ponyo,” “Spirited Away” — don’t rake in what a new “Toy Story” does.
The plot is a familiar one, the tale of "The Borrowers" having been previously adapted to film several prior times, and so there isn't quite the same breadth of freshness and discovery as there is in, say, " Spirited Away " or 2005's "Howl's Moving Castle."
That certainly is the case for Japanese animation studio Ghibli and director Hayao Miyazaki, who has produced classic hand-animated 2-D films such as “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.”
“Luca” may not pack the melodramatic punch of “When Marnie Was There” or offer a whisper of the heart that’s as powerful as that in “From Up on Poppy Hill,” but it’s buoyed by the same frizzante sense of personal freedom that informs even those second-rate Studio Ghibli films.
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
influenced The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
Themes
Arrietty is clearly a kindred spirit to the heroines of Miyazaki's earlier "Nausicaä," "Kiki's Delivery Service," "Princess Mononoke," and "Spirited Away."
A gentle surrealism washes through the film, along with a sense of melancholy that positions it between the fairy-tale beauty of “My Neighbor Totoro’’ and the whimsy of “Kiki’s Delivery Service’’ (and well short of the sometimes frightening intensity of “Spirited Away’’).
Written by animation master Hayao Miyazaki and helmed by animator and first-time director Yonebayashi Hiromasa, The Secret World of Arrietty follows in the footsteps of ultra-gentle Studio Ghibli family fare like Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service.