The Clock family are four-inch-tall people who live anonymously in another family's residence, borrowing simple items to make their home. Life changes for the Clocks when their daughter, Arrietty, is discovered.
After helping a cat, a young girl finds herself involuntarily engaged to a cat prince in a magical world where her only hope of freedom lies with a dapper cat statuette come to life.
Director:
Hiroyuki Morita
Stars:
Chizuru Ikewaki,
Yoshihiko Hakamada,
Aki Maeda
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
An adventure about a five-year-old boy and his relationship with Ponyo, a goldfish princess who longs to become a human after falling in love with him.
When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.
College student Hana falls in love with another student who turns out to be a werewolf, who dies in an accident after their second child. Hana moves to the rural countryside where her husband grew up to raise her two werewolf children.
A young girl is sent to the country for health reasons, where she meets an unlikely friend in the form of Marnie, a young girl with flowing blonde hair. As the friendship unravels it is ... See full summary »
Director:
Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Stars:
Sara Takatsuki,
Kasumi Arimura,
Nanako Matsushima
A flamboyant thief and his gang struggle to free a princess from an evil count's clutches and to learn the hidden secret to a fabulous treasure that she holds part of a key to.
There is a lot of evidence that the movie takes place in 60s Japan. The song "Sukiyaki (Ue o Muite Arukou)" plays in the background twice, which was released in 1961 in Japan. There're posters for Tokyo's 1964 Olympics. See more »
Goofs
Although the movie takes place in the early 1960s, the "Coke" sign over the store (at around 6 mins) has a swoosh. That didn't become part of the Coca-Cola logo until 1969. See more »
Crazy Credits
When Umi and Shun board the ship to find out the truth about their parentage, there is a shot that shows a red sign saying "Ghibli" on the front of the ship. See more »
From the moment "Up on Poppy Hill" opens, scans its world in photographic panorama, and takes you into an ordinary Japanese kitchen where early-teen Umi is preparing a meal, you sense that this will not be like any Miyazaki film that you have ever seen. Still present is the flawless Studio Ghibli animation, but all traces of fantasy are gone. Instead the film grabs your heartstrings and won't let go. It's a simple enough story, neither harrowing nor heartbreaking, but its telling is so rich and enveloping that you're quickly as close to it as if you were on the back of a careening bicycle with Umi. // Young children will be entertained by the wonderful animation and may have questions to ask about the differences between how Umi lives her daily life in 1963 Japan and how they themselves live. Anyone older than about nine will grasp the full depth of the story and will enter it through its richness and detail. If you are empathetic at all your eyes will be wet from recognition, and, often enough, from joy. See this film and hope for more like it from the new Miyazaki generation. (Note: This review is for the English-dubbed, non-subtitled version that opened in Los Angeles in late March, 2013.)
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From the moment "Up on Poppy Hill" opens, scans its world in photographic panorama, and takes you into an ordinary Japanese kitchen where early-teen Umi is preparing a meal, you sense that this will not be like any Miyazaki film that you have ever seen. Still present is the flawless Studio Ghibli animation, but all traces of fantasy are gone. Instead the film grabs your heartstrings and won't let go. It's a simple enough story, neither harrowing nor heartbreaking, but its telling is so rich and enveloping that you're quickly as close to it as if you were on the back of a careening bicycle with Umi. // Young children will be entertained by the wonderful animation and may have questions to ask about the differences between how Umi lives her daily life in 1963 Japan and how they themselves live. Anyone older than about nine will grasp the full depth of the story and will enter it through its richness and detail. If you are empathetic at all your eyes will be wet from recognition, and, often enough, from joy. See this film and hope for more like it from the new Miyazaki generation. (Note: This review is for the English-dubbed, non-subtitled version that opened in Los Angeles in late March, 2013.)