Today, we watched My Neighbors the Yamadas (a first for both of us), which is like the black sheep of Studio Ghibli films (at least the ones from the 20th century; I'm not 100% sure about the ones from this century) because it was so different. The subject matter is different (it's based on a comic strip), the format is different (it's a bunch of short vignettes instead of one longer narrative), and the art style is markedly different. No other Ghibli film, even now, looks anything like this (with the possible exception of The Tale of Princess Kaguya). It's very, very cartoony, all the characters are chibi-ized, there are often no backgrounds, and it looks almost like it was drawn with crayons. In short, it looks nothing like a Ghibli film. That's not a bad thing (I actually like this art style quite a bit), just prepare yourselves if you're expecting like Totoro or Mononoke.
But boy howdy is it hilarious. It's true that some of the jokes don't land, and some of the vignettes are actually a bit sad, but by and large, these vignettes are quite funny. Some had me howling with laughter to the point of not being able to breathe. My favorite joke, for those of you who have seen this before, is the shopping list joke between Mr and Mrs Yamada. I had to pause the movie and rewind because I was laughing so hard.
This is a great movie to watch right now. I think we all need a good laugh or two š
No comments:
Post a Comment