My Neighbors the Yamadas (Isao Takahata, 1999) I've said this before but I'll say it again. As much as I love Miyazaki's magical worlds and his brave, heroic characters, it's possible that I love Takahata's sweet and simple universe populated by mostly ordinary characters even more. His films are full of a genuine affection for these everyman characters and somehow by the end of the film, they seem heroic even when they aren't fighting any real wizards or demons, but simply dealing with regular life.
I read somewhere that this is based off a comic strip. This makes complete sense because this film is just like a series of comic strips come to life. It's these short episodes in the life of the Yamada family. Some funny, some serious, some sentimental, some cynical and some which manage to be all of the above at once. It is these tonal shifts that are most impressive to me about this film. Somehow Takahata manages to go from sweet but mostly silly comedy involving the husband and wife sparring over the TV remote to these scenes that have all the pathos and gravitas of something like
Tokyo Story or
Ikiru. Suddenly it's a film about aging and family and expectations that end up being unmet (kinda like that awesome opening sequence in
Up).
One more thing I've learnt about Takahata's films is that there's no fixed animation style.
Only Yesterday switches between two rather different sorts of animation and this one is totally different from all the other Takahata films I've watched before. The entire film looks like these really simple, almost crude watercolor paintings and there's not a whole lot of detail on screen. Somehow this style of animation totally matches the simple, zen nature of the film. Plus it lends itself really beautifully to my two favorite sequences from the film - the beginning montage of the wedding with the sledding analogy and the storks and the sharks and the grandmother on a tricycle (yes, it's that insane and awesome) and the ending karaoke montage with the crazy dancing and the balloons. Those two montages are simply brilliant and the two moments where Takahata just quietly sneaks in some magic into an otherwise super-realistic film.
Thanks Bill T for giving me another film to love and put on my Top Animated Films list
.
Note: One minor gripe, I didn't care so much for the pop music in the film.