My Neighbors the Yamadas

The daily life of the Yamada family. There is no larger story; morning arguments, a daughter lost at a shop, the father dozing in front of the television, teenagers on motorbikes. The film lays these out one after another in short sections. Isao Takahata wrote and directed. It carries the Studio Ghibli name and stands entirely apart from the studio's usual fantasy. The visual method matters as much as the film. Hand-drawn paper sketches were scanned into a computer and the colouring was done digitally. It was marketed as fully digital, though only the colouring stage used a computer. The result sits between watercolour and a newspaper cartoon, with a great deal of empty space. The box office fell short: 1.56 billion yen against a 2 billion budget, low among Ghibli films. The reviews were good; one assessment called it witty, playful and gorgeous to look at, another wrote that it offers a soothing calm to daily struggles. It is the only Ghibli feature distributed theatrically by Shochiku rather than Toho or Toei. Who it is for: viewers who like animation outside the Ghibli mould and comedy about ordinary life. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a story. The film goes nowhere on purpose, and for some viewers ninety minutes of that is long.