The contrast between Japanese and US animation is stark, and depressing.
Films like Totoro and Kiki's Delivery can and do have no antagonist. They can make an engaging, entertaining and enlightening movie with out having psychopathic characters dragging the film to the darkness, and draining the audience of it's will to live.
My daughter was upset by the images she saw in this film and wishes she had not watched it. That's a pretty damning review, as this show was recommended for ages 7 and above.
Lost Ollie was a beautifully rendered and realised film but instead of Ollie working to reunite with his boy we get a psychopathic and broken doll with his aggressive side kick, justifying their brutality, in a film that many kids will watch, and to adults too. And this is the stumbling block that western cinema can't seem to rid itself of. We watch a toy violently disemboweling another, and then later laying into the main character, because he "lost a girl doll some time ago"?, that's his motivation and why we're sitting through his melt down for 2 and a bit episodes, and finally watch him murdered in self defense. Because the film makers can't think of an entertaining story that doesn't involve brutality and violence.
Add to that that these were 'creative' choices by the film maker as this was 'adapted' from a book, and varies wildly from the book's content, which is dark in a different way, but the filmmakers didn't choose to address that, instead they rendered in the brutality.
So are we to believe that in our modern society there wasn't a strong enough uplifting story of the toy helping his owner deal with the loss of his mother, and all the other magic in there they they felt they had to overshadow it with a psychopath angle, because we don't have enough of them already?
My daughter wanted to turn this off a few times because it just wasn't enjoyable, it was unfun, even though it looked beautiful and had many elements kids could and should relate to to over arching darkness and brutality of the story and events made it unpleasant. Is that what filmmakers thing we're wanting from our 'entertainment' these days?
I, the adult felt less than uplifted by it too. We can do better, Japan regularly does better. Your Name, Weather With You, Totoro, Kiki etc etc, all have strong stories and zero violence, and even the ones with violence have something positive to take away. Please do better.
Films like Totoro and Kiki's Delivery can and do have no antagonist. They can make an engaging, entertaining and enlightening movie with out having psychopathic characters dragging the film to the darkness, and draining the audience of it's will to live.
My daughter was upset by the images she saw in this film and wishes she had not watched it. That's a pretty damning review, as this show was recommended for ages 7 and above.
Lost Ollie was a beautifully rendered and realised film but instead of Ollie working to reunite with his boy we get a psychopathic and broken doll with his aggressive side kick, justifying their brutality, in a film that many kids will watch, and to adults too. And this is the stumbling block that western cinema can't seem to rid itself of. We watch a toy violently disemboweling another, and then later laying into the main character, because he "lost a girl doll some time ago"?, that's his motivation and why we're sitting through his melt down for 2 and a bit episodes, and finally watch him murdered in self defense. Because the film makers can't think of an entertaining story that doesn't involve brutality and violence.
Add to that that these were 'creative' choices by the film maker as this was 'adapted' from a book, and varies wildly from the book's content, which is dark in a different way, but the filmmakers didn't choose to address that, instead they rendered in the brutality.
So are we to believe that in our modern society there wasn't a strong enough uplifting story of the toy helping his owner deal with the loss of his mother, and all the other magic in there they they felt they had to overshadow it with a psychopath angle, because we don't have enough of them already?
My daughter wanted to turn this off a few times because it just wasn't enjoyable, it was unfun, even though it looked beautiful and had many elements kids could and should relate to to over arching darkness and brutality of the story and events made it unpleasant. Is that what filmmakers thing we're wanting from our 'entertainment' these days?
I, the adult felt less than uplifted by it too. We can do better, Japan regularly does better. Your Name, Weather With You, Totoro, Kiki etc etc, all have strong stories and zero violence, and even the ones with violence have something positive to take away. Please do better.