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Mary and the Witch's FlowerSaw this in the cinema today (original Japanese dialogue with English subtitles). Well, the film just felt really derivative I'm afraid. Like a pastiche of every Ghibli film of the last 15 years. Studio Ponoc seems to be trying fill the void Studio Ghibli left with knockoff feature films. I mean even their logo mimics Ghibli's. I really like parts of the film, but the designs felt like left overs from a Ghibli production. The story had a lot of problems too. Being adapted from a British children's novel from the early 1970's, a lot of the early part of the story just felt out place as I think the film is meant to be set in the modern day English countryside (there's also a couple of very Japanese traits portrayed in the film which British people would just not do which amused me). The other part which didn't work for me is the journey Mary went on, from being unsure about herself to being comfortable with herself was really ham-fisted, as was the development of the relationship between her and Peter. Add in the fact Ghibli has previous produced two films based on children's or young adult's fantasy novels, and the with the setting in a school of magic, the whole film just really feels uninspired and like it's riding the coattails of other films. You just really have to question why Ponoc chose to adapt "The Little Broomstick" over coming up with their own original work or adapting something else from a genre that hasn't been done to death. I did like a lot of the film from the half way mark to the finale, but overall it's a really mediocre film. 6 out of 10, and I'm being quite generous.
Mary and the Witch's Flower
Saw this in the cinema today (original Japanese dialogue with English subtitles). Well, the film just felt really derivative I'm afraid. Like a pastiche of every Ghibli film of the last 15 years. Studio Ponoc seems to be trying fill the void Studio Ghibli left with knockoff feature films. I mean even their logo mimics Ghibli's. I really like parts of the film, but the designs felt like left overs from a Ghibli production. The story had a lot of problems too. Being adapted from a British children's novel from the early 1970's, a lot of the early part of the story just felt out place as I think the film is meant to be set in the modern day English countryside (there's also a couple of very Japanese traits portrayed in the film which British people would just not do which amused me). The other part which didn't work for me is the journey Mary went on, from being unsure about herself to being comfortable with herself was really ham-fisted, as was the development of the relationship between her and Peter. Add in the fact Ghibli has previous produced two films based on children's or young adult's fantasy novels, and the with the setting in a school of magic, the whole film just really feels uninspired and like it's riding the coattails of other films. You just really have to question why Ponoc chose to adapt "The Little Broomstick" over coming up with their own original work or adapting something else from a genre that hasn't been done to death. I did like a lot of the film from the half way mark to the finale, but overall it's a really mediocre film. 6 out of 10, and I'm being quite generous.
