Les enfants loups, Ame & Yuki

Probably the best anime I have seen recently. From the director of 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' gives us this wonderful fantasy-drama. This movie is kinda resembling Miyazaki's 'My Neighbour Totoro', only the place it takes place and a bit with the characters. Other than that it is an awesome movie with a totally fresh concept as per my knowledge.

All the three main characters, a mother and her two kids were lovable. Aoi Miyazaki never stops impressing me where she appears here as a mother. Her roles from various movies are always coming with a surprise who peaking high and higher, she really rocks. The two kids' characters as well very adorable. Like the two sisters in 'My Neighbour Totoro' these two made the movie look great. Actually it was a tale about a mother who raises two wolf children. As a single parent, her hard work and dedication to the kids to grow up having a normal and happy childhood she must sacrifice her life.

When her husband dies, Hana must take care of the kids where she lacks the knowledge of their kind to give support. She finds difficulties in city to raise them so she decides to move to a rural where she can cut the communications with the other humans. Growing her own vegetables in the backyard, facing the different seasons and going through all the ups and down in life she almost achieves her ambition.

It did not look like an anime movie, it looked almost a real one with many cool and colourful frames. The story commenced with a nice love story with a little heartbreak. Then the most enjoyable parts begin with lots of laughs until the approach of the end where it brings lots of emotions before concluding with a powerful howl. It had very nice background score in all the crucial portion of the tale. In other word to say, the movie was just like what I expected and more than that. I felt the movie was short and was not ready to accept the end. You know, it is better being short and sweet than with unnecessary drag in a tale. This is a movie that everyone will love, especially kids and families. Like I said if you are a die hard 'My Neighbour Totoro' movie fan then you must not miss it. So highly recommended by me.

In the vein of films like Totoro, and in contrast to Mamoru Hosoda's previous Summer Wars, this film glides along without an epic struggle driving the story. Rather, the greatest moments are the depictions of family life and the picturesque sketches of Tokyo and the Japanese countryside.

The story begins with the start of the eponymous wolf children's parents' love, and progresses through births, deaths, moves, the first day of school, and their growth into adults. The story is almost too ordinary, but in its normality, its moments are universal. One can't help but stare in awe at the beauty of life as it happens, and be reminded of the beauty of one's own mundane yet special lives.

The art is also quite something. Tokyo's bustling life is reduced to warm glows of winter, and the Japanese farms and countryside is rendered beautifully whether it be in rain, sun, or snow.

Watch it. It's not of the same scale as Hosoda's previous Summer Wars or The Girl Who Leapt through Time, but it packs an emotional punch that surpasses either of them. You'll shed a few tears, and marvel at the beauty of the world and our lives.

Wolf Children tells the tale of two children, who have been born to a normal university female student and to a werewolf man. From their father they inherit the ability to turn into wolves, which manifests almost immediately after their birth. Unfortunately their father dies and it quickly becomes apparent that werewolf children just cannot be brought up in the city. At least not alone. Thus their mother does the sensible, but also risky, thing and moves to the countryside to farm the land and to raise her children in peace.

From that intriguing beginning we get a beautiful film about the problems of growing up while straddling two heritages. Yuki, the older of the two children, is much more outgoing and brave, and she's at first much more comfortable with her wolf blood than her brother Ame, who's more cautious about the wolf within, but also understands it on a level that Yuki can never reach. It's a very fitting allegory and the film takes full advantage of the possibilities offered. Especially near the end the film has some absolutely beautiful and thoughtful moments when the children, now young teenagers, finally have to start making decision about which of the worlds they want to belong to.

I also have to praise the character of the mother, Hana. She's so often clearly way in over her head, but her stubbornness and constant cheerful outlook on life carry her through even the hardest periods. She's very human in how she struggles, but in the best possible way, because it's exactly her humanity that gives her strength.

Studio Madhouse's animation style is still very smooth and fluid, though I do find that their character models are a bit simplistic when you put them against lush nature backgrounds. Not really a problem, but personally I would have preferred a bit more naturalistic approach to the designs.

Wold Children is a fantastic film for all fans of anime and for those that are interested in the dichotomy between the world of beast and the world of man.

If you'd ever need to know why 2D animation is still relevant, or why the slew of 3D animated films can't seem to dent and push the former out of fashion, then perhaps Wolf Children encapsulates all the reasons why this is so. There's a lack of charm with the very clinical approach to animated films, especially with loads of images created digitally, and now for the 3D format, and this charm is always ever present in the traditional art form for the big screen. And don't forget that story remains king.

Director Mamoru Hosoda continues on his roll with a brand of animated films that are extremely well received, because not only are they drawn to perfection in anime style, but also his films touches the emotional core on humanity, and this will inevitably move you with his style and delivery of such strong stories, whether written by someone else, as a film adaptation of novels such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, or like in Summer Wars and Wolf Children, stem from his own imagination. And what a fantastic reservoir of imagination he's tapping from as well, either telling stories with relevance to a digital age, or as in this case, a fairy tale like allure that is deceptively simple, yet concealing a very strong ode to motherhood.

Yes that's right. For the most parts throughout this film, I thought it also resembled Yoji Yamada's Kabei: Our Mother, in the sense that this film takes on story proportions centered around a mother's unconditional love for her children, and the continuous strive to make ends meet and bring up her children to the best of her ability, inculcating a value system into her young ones. And the episodes the mothers encounter strengthen their resolve and determination, just goes to show the lengths they will go to in ensuring proper upbringing filled with love, care and concern. This simple narrative will undoubtedly move, only if it's done right, which Wolf Children did, complete with a fantastical element which provides a refreshing examination looking in, with a little bit of grotesque morbidity if one cannot look away from.

I dislike to use this analogy, but perhaps it may strike an immediate chord with the current generation. Twilight has progressed and shown the decision Bella made to be with Edward, and in some ways, Wolf Children is like a what if to that scenario had she decided to be with Jacob. Hana (voiced by Aoi Miyazaki) meets up with a tall, handsome stranger in class (Takao Osawa), and before you can say Twilight, they fall in love, and it is revealed that her lover is a Wolfman. Undeterred, they begin a family, and soon Hana gives birth to the titular daughter Yuki and son Ame, before tragedy strikes and the family becomes a dysfunctional one without a father figure.

Fearing that her children may be discovered to be wolf-human hybrids, with a number of scenes showing the challenges she faces such as their tantrums and uncontrollable changes, or the dilemma faced when they fall sick, she decides to uproot and move into the countryside, where life is simpler, neighbours are far away from one another, and there is room to, well, let her young ones roam in the vast grasslands and mountain sides. A new life beckons, and the film begins its homage to all moms having to struggle to bring up their children in unfamiliar surroundings, with little assistance, and plenty of inexperience.

As a storyteller, Mamoru Hosoda excelled in character development, as we journey together with Hana in her upbringing, with the children endearing themselves to you in double quick time. They are adorably designed, drawn and brought to life, whether in their human form, or in animal form. We identify with everyone easily because of the inherent humanity Hosoda gives them, whether or not we are already a mom, or reflect that onto the challenges faced by our own mom's upbringing of ourselves. And both Yuki and Ame, besides their gender, have very contrasting qualities, from young to their teens, a tale told to just about the time where teenage rebellion and the need to forge their own independence take centerstage.

There are plenty of episodes in Wolf Children that covers a spectrum of emotions, from comedy to those that will set heaviness in your heart. The innocence of the children will not get lost on you, and in fact will rub off you, while the pains of growing up will also touch a raw nerve, as Hosoda clearly knows which moments in one's teenage life to translate his story for the screen, bringing relevance the forgetting that the children were in fact more than meets the eye. And the animation is clearly Hosoda's vision in having details balanced with the occasional need for scarcity, which nailed it especially when the narrative calls for some distance either physically, or emotionally, and it's a stylistic choice that's already seen in a number of his films.

Mamoru Hosoda set up his Studio Chizu with this production, and I'm really looking forward to more stories in the coming years. Meanwhile, Wolf Children is a must watch, and a clear favourite for the year. A little pity that it's not opening on more screens, but make your way to the Filmgarde cineplexes as this remains an exclusive to the chain. Meanwhile, I'm going to look back at Hosoda's filmography on DVD/Blu!

Even though this is a fantasy movie, it is notable for how real it feels. The fantasy elements inform the plot, but it is the very real human emotions and connections that fuel the movie. This feels more like a thinly veiled version of real life than something fanciful.

The movie is constantly moving, but in a quiet way. It touches your heart, not with big moments, but with small ones. It is a movie about love of all kinds, and while it is admittedly an idealized version of love, a story of the sort of unselfish, uncomplicated love that only exists consistently in movies, it is truly lovely.

It is also often quite funny, well paced, and thoroughly entertaining.

Having seen Mamoru Hosada's previous films Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, I see him as the successor to Hadeo Miyazaki, who (alas) cannot live forever. Hosada is a very different filmmaker, but he has the same ability to make fantasy real and human, and to make me happy.

Watch this movie.