Review of Wolf Children (2013) by Kreegan64 — 04 Jun 2014

Is Mamoru Hosoda the new Hayao Miyazaki? Not if he continues to make movies like this he won't. Hosoda seems to have a strange tendency to be able to direct a decent, interesting half of a movie, and after that half-mark he just panics and tries to wing it, having no idea what to do next.

This was evident in Summer Wars, and it is evident here. Wolf children tries hard to be the proverbial "My Neighbor Totoro" of Hosoda, and fails almost entirely. The first half of the movie is interesting enough, you sit there with more interest than most anime movies, but not with the same enrapturement that you get from Miyazaki films, it goes about it's way, providing an interesting foundation for the rest of the movie to build upon.

It's pretty entertaining (minus the boarder-line furry yiff fantasy scene) but the rest of the movie fails to deliver the promise of the movie's premise. The second half of the movie tries its hardest to be a profound, family story that's heartwarming and enthralling, but it is just filled to the brim with anime clichés and archetypes.

The plot becomes way to predictable for its own good, and then it becomes boring, and almost exhausting to watch as you see characters enact their predictable archs with the dopey, happy-go-lucky female, they independent, adventurous girl, and the emo, selfish reserved kid whose 'life changing revelation' happens to include being a dick to someone he shouldn't be a dick to, and the whole plot ultimately fails to deliver both its message and just fails to be entertaining.

The animation is pretty good for the most part, it certainly isn't eye candy, but it delivers, that is until it decides it wants to mix in some ugly 3D animation with the traditional, and that just comes off as lazy.

Hosoda's style also just doesn't carry much charm and isn't very detailed, so it overall is a so-so film when it comes to visuals. The voice acting is actually pretty good, if only the characters it was representing weren't so flat, the voice overs could have carried the movie a bit more.

The sound effects and music is pretty forgettable, and music is key in presenting moods and carrying much of the movie's magic, so this is a pretty big blow to this movie overall as you see dead serious scenes that cause you to laugh, that partially being due to music.

The movie isn't entirely bad after the first half though, there are still some scene that can make you smile, some character interactions that make you feel something, but these are small, and far in between.

Hosoda is very ambitious, but he lacks both the talent and the know-how it seems. He makes some decent ideas, but if it's not one thing holding the movie back, it's another thing holding it back. He has the necessary components to make a decent film, but he just can't seem to bring it all together.

If he was a baker, he could make a recipe for a five-layer cake that just sounds amazing, and be able to make the first and maybe second layer, but after that the cake begins to get sloppy, it begins to look dull, and the only thing that keeps the cake from toppling over are sticks he props against the cake.

If he can eventually get the skill, and the experience to keep a story together, and execute it right, and hit all those high notes, he could be a pretty good director, not the next Miyazaki by a long shot, but definitely a pretty good anime director.

This movie is better than his last movie, Summer Wars, but it still isn't good.