In many ways, this is one of the most communicative films from Takahata, although it is consistent with his common themes -- family, the beauty of nature and simple things. It makes you nostalgic of a time long gone although admittedly none of us probably lived through the sixties or understand its references, but even then Takahata manages to make the story simple enough to be understood by all. Let us review all of this in detail.
Story (7): The story isn't anything too fancy, nor does it pretend to be. This is about building up an identifiable character from the city and their reliving of their past while in vacation in the countryside. We get charming anecdotes from the main character's childhood and her secondary and unfortunately underdeveloped love story in the present.
Music (6): Music is average, we get some cool gems like Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Rydeen" and some other nostalgic tunes from the 70s in Japan. Nothing too impressive in this aspect.
Animation (9): The animation is great, but not in the conventional way people describe it. I think what makes this one special is both how expressive the characters are, but also how realistic their body language is when reacting to elements of their environnement, I have rarely seen a movie depict this accurately some little things we do without realizing it. Removing the grass we sat on after standing up in a field, the little hesitation we get before starting to run, the father's gaze after hitting his daughter, it is all incredibly well thought out and I can only imagine how lengthy and concise the storyboarding was on this one. It's great.
This gives us an overall average of 7.34/10, I can safely recommend this movie if you enjoy Takahata's storytelling, you won't be disappointed.
