Two animated films about young girls opening Friday deserve an audience, though only one is certain to get one.
That is the Pixar film “Inside Out” by Pete Docter, the writer of “Toy Story” and director of “Up” about the interior emotional life of a young girl, in which the emotions are actual characters voiced by actors like Amy Poehler.
The heavily marketed, highly anticipated and already critically acclaimed film is poised to become one of the most successful films of the year.
The other, “When Marnie Was There,” isn’t.
And yet it has a similarly impressive pedigree in Studio Ghibli, home of Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese director of ethereal and often intangible films like “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Princess Mononoke” and his, reportedly, final film, “The Wind Rises.”
“Marnie,” an elegantly rendered ghost story – from Ghibli by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, one of the key animators in Miyazaki’s films – appears in the Miyazaki tradition of magical realism.
Tellingly, “Inside Out” seems influenced by the highly regarded Miyazaki – who won an Oscar for “Spirited Away” in 2003 – in that similarly forsakes literal storytelling for a more cerebral style.
With Miyazaki’s retirement, there is speculation this will be Studio Ghibli’s final film.
It could conceivably give “Inside Out” a run for its money come Oscar time.
Watch the trailer below. It will open here Friday at the Oriental, in dubbed and subtitled versions.
Tags: Hayao Miyazaki, Inside Out, Marnie, Pete Docter, Studio Ghibli Posted by