Being the last movie before Studio Ghiblis hiatus, I had big expectations for 'When Marnie was there'. Since the studio has produced nearly exclusively great films so far, 'Marnie' had to compete with giants like 'My Neighbor Totoro', 'Spirited Away' and my personal favorite, 'Princess Mononoke'. Leaving the theater, I was quite disappointed.
'When Marnie was there' follows the 12-year old, depressed girl Anna. She doesn't have any friends and her foster parents are overwhelmed with her, so they sent her to the countryside to visit some relatives. There she meets and befriends the mysterious girl Marnie.
Since 'Marnie' is stylistically similar to 'The Wind Rises', the animators couldn't let their imagination go wild and create amazing fantasy worlds like in 'Spirited Away'. But this isn't really a problem, since 'Marnie' is more grounded and focuses more on the characters and plot and not the world they live in. Despite that, the animators are still able to pull off some great visuals that not only look great, but also serve the plot and characters.
Ironically, this is the major problem with this film. While the plot itself is great and has some interesting themes, the friendship between the two girls is extremely superficial and barely explored. They meet and from one second to the other are best friends for life. To make it even worse, the dialogue is cringe-worthy at times, especially when cliché'd phrases like 'I will love you forever' and ' Always remember me' are used. This wouldn't be a problem, but since the mutual relationship is one major theme and not really developed, this dialogue seems heavy-handed and out of place.
The next wasted opportunity was the ending. The buildup and especially the subtle hints throughout the film were well done, but it was completely ruined after they explained for the 5th time what the ending was about, in case somebody didn't pay attention for the last 10 minutes.
Another minor complained would be the constant falling and tripping of the main character. Miyazaki always used some quirks like these to make his characters more real, but director Hiromasa Yonebayashi went way overboard with this and made Anna look clumsy and barely capable off walking.
What makes this movie disappointing is not that it is a bad movie, but that it had potential to be great, and wasted it.
'When Marnie was there' follows the 12-year old, depressed girl Anna. She doesn't have any friends and her foster parents are overwhelmed with her, so they sent her to the countryside to visit some relatives. There she meets and befriends the mysterious girl Marnie.
Since 'Marnie' is stylistically similar to 'The Wind Rises', the animators couldn't let their imagination go wild and create amazing fantasy worlds like in 'Spirited Away'. But this isn't really a problem, since 'Marnie' is more grounded and focuses more on the characters and plot and not the world they live in. Despite that, the animators are still able to pull off some great visuals that not only look great, but also serve the plot and characters.
Ironically, this is the major problem with this film. While the plot itself is great and has some interesting themes, the friendship between the two girls is extremely superficial and barely explored. They meet and from one second to the other are best friends for life. To make it even worse, the dialogue is cringe-worthy at times, especially when cliché'd phrases like 'I will love you forever' and ' Always remember me' are used. This wouldn't be a problem, but since the mutual relationship is one major theme and not really developed, this dialogue seems heavy-handed and out of place.
The next wasted opportunity was the ending. The buildup and especially the subtle hints throughout the film were well done, but it was completely ruined after they explained for the 5th time what the ending was about, in case somebody didn't pay attention for the last 10 minutes.
Another minor complained would be the constant falling and tripping of the main character. Miyazaki always used some quirks like these to make his characters more real, but director Hiromasa Yonebayashi went way overboard with this and made Anna look clumsy and barely capable off walking.
What makes this movie disappointing is not that it is a bad movie, but that it had potential to be great, and wasted it.