Mes voisins les Yamada

While Miyazaki is the best known (and most successful) of the non-demon-fixated/violent-porn anime directors, his sometime producing partner and fellow Studio Ghibli alumni easily equals him in breadth of vision, commitment to art and passionate filmmaking. And although it's Miyazaki who alone seems to possess the Midas touch of his uniquely innocent, melancholic, optimistic, whimsical sensibility, Takahata has arguably pushed the envelope further back in terms of Japan's commercial animation vocabulary. Witness the neo-realism of Grave Of The Fireflies, fearless indictment of globalisation in Pon Poko, and now this utterly charming adaptation of the popular manga, My Neighbours The Yamadas, rendered in a style new to Anime features, but utterly faithful to the original text.

A series of vignettes rather than one overall plot, it is nevertheless easy to find the running time flying past you as you take in the idiosyncratic characters, semi-bizarre situations (although a moment's thought reveals that your family was probably just like this), and beautiful performances (from animators and voice artists alike), finishing with a sense of the family's strength as a unit through a love for each other that's expressed more through their tolerance of each other's peculiarities than in open declarations of affection. And like Grave Of The Fireflies and Whisper Of The Heart, a popular western song that no one of my generation (20s) would ever dream of listening to seriously is made poignant, rousing and brimming with emotion.

Ten out of ten: films this good are rare.

My Neighbors the Yamadas is a wonderful series of short stories based around the misadventures of the Yamada family. Varied in length and tone, you never really know what to expect next. However, while it is indeed a great film, it does have its drawbacks. Chiefly that being the fact that the film is probably too long. Since there is no solid narrative to carry the film through, there isn't a normal sense of pacing, and it can be a struggle for some people to make it all the way to the end in one sitting. Aside from this complaint, the film is still a must see.

Some sequences to watch out for:

The family's young daughter, Nonoko, accidentally gets left behind at a shop while on a family excursion, causing the family to panic. Meanwhile, Nonoko simply waits for them, assuming that her family somehow got lost.

A chase scene in which the father imagines himself as Kamen Rider, the hero of a popular Japanese kid's show.

A scene in which some characters are watching a baseball game on television, and the deceptively simple animation style is used to depict scenes from a real game.

I think this is a pretty good animation film.

Some people might not like the animation style, but i think it is refreshing in it's simplicity(i'm honestly sick of the usual "kawaii" very pretty anime style). The "yamadas" are the stars of the show, it all revolves around them and the daily routine of the family members.

Its more like a slice of life thing and it doesn't really follow a plot, but there's an overarching theme that links every short bit of the film together. The message that the film is trying to convey is that family should always be united and try to tolerate their differences.

The tone of the film is always bright, even when they are "fighting" it's comical. So you can watch this with your kids.

I do not think this is Studio Ghibli's best film, but I liked it because it was different and it still maintained their charm. I do think though out of the English dubs this is one of the weaker ones. Don't get me wrong the voice acting is fine, it's just that the script as has been said before has many references that some mayn't get. That said, it is a very funny and charming film. The animation is excellent, different in a sketchy sort of style but I liked that, and the music is cool. The story is engaging while working at being simple, and the characters are sheer delights, I can never get enough of the grandma. Overall, not their best but I still really liked it. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This is a Studio Ghibli movie: The Totoro is displayed at the opening, and the animation is very well done. There end all similarities. The word to describe it is "different". Different graphics, different animation, different kind of story... Nothing my knowledge of previous Ghibli films could have prepared me to see. Especially coming from the director of such films as "Hotaru no Haka" (aka "Grave of the Fireflies")

When seeing the very first pictures, I wondered what these drawings were, so far from the characters I got used to see, and like... And then, the magic of its humor took me. The auditorium was fully filled (some people had to sit on the stairs), and everyone was laughing out loud, having no problem at all to follow the jokes (the movie was subtitled) even if we may have missed a few of them, due to a possible lack in cultural knowledge. Yet, I don't think I missed so much... This Yamada family is close enough to us, and their behavior seemed rather universal to me.

I spent a great time watching it... But I have perhaps only one regret: I'm afraid I won't find the same pleasure I always find to see a Ghibli film again and again. The graphics aren't the main interest in the film, and when you already know the jokes, well... Therefore, I would rate it differently for the first seeing, and the ones after. A high rating anyway, especially for having been able to make us laugh so much without ever using any "dumb" easy joke as we could now find so (too) often in nowadays films. But I will never watch it again and again as I could do with a "Kiki", a "Nausicaa", or (my favorite) a "Mimi o Sumaseba" (aka "Whispers of the Heart").

So, don't hesitate if you have the opportunity to go and see it. You should appreciate it at least once. Then you could wish to own it, most probably to be able to show it to some friends or family.