Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Yesterday, I wrote a bit about The Secret World of Arrietty, the newly opened Ghibli film that was planned and co-written by Hayao Mayazaki and was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the studio’s youngest director.

I went to see the film last night and have to say I proceeded with a bit of trepidation. Without Mayazaki, himself, directing I was not confident that the film would deliver all I wanted. This was a mistake on my part; the film is superb. It’s right in line with the canon of films the studio has recently been producing. It isn’t as emotional as Ponyo, nor as spiritual as Spirited Away, but the film, to me, comes closest in mood to My Neighbor Totoro.

The film starts as did Spirited Away. We follow the rear of a car as it approaches a country house. Like Totoro, there is a move to the rural area. In Totoro, the two girls are moved closer to the hospital where their sick mother is staying. In Arrietty, the boy is moving to the more natural and quieter setting so he can rest prior to a heart operation.

Within the house, where he is to spend some time resting, lives Arrietty a girl about his age who is only four inches tall. She lives with her parents. and they’re not sure if they’re the last of the “Borrowers,” as these small people are known. The boy sees the tiny girl and does all in his power to make friends with her. Arrietty knows that once their secret is revealed the comfortable family must move to another location. They can’t allow the curiosity of the “Beans” (Human Beings) to endanger their lives or freedom.

The film, like all recent Ghibli works, shows a wonderful interaction between plant, animal and human life. We’re all of the same mold, and we all have to treasure the existence of what is around us. It’s a wonderful and precious theme, and I relish their insistence on placing focus on it from film to film. This, to me, ties the work together wonderfully.

The animation is excellent at every turn albeit very gentle. There are always beautiful and subtle motions in the character movement, and each character is developed visually as well as emotionally. This is not something I much feel from animation I’ve seen in Western films recently. Ghibli is not forcing clichéd motion on their characters – such as popping zip actions for everything that moves. It’s a natural animation that I find wonderful to absorb.

I wasn’t completely happy with the voice cast. I found Amy Poehler a bit too shrill and at times overacted, but Poehler’s husband, Will Arnett, does an excellent turn as the father. Most surprising to me was Carol Burnett who did a good job with her character, Hara. The two leads, Bridgit Mendler and David Henrie were also quite fine. Although Hendler’s song tagged onto the credit sequence by Disney is completely off.

See the film if you have any interest in excellent 2D animation or in Ghibli’s work. It’s a bravura performance, though very understated. Beautifully done work which is certainly better than any of the animated features from last year.

Now onto the photo essay for Sunday:

- My friend Steve Fisher sent in this photo essay, and the images are too curious to pass up. Something I don’t see very often – or even at all.

Okay, so it may not have been the most romantic idea, but the chance to tour Polshek’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, even on Valentine’s Day, was too good to pass up.

Line of “Digester Eggs” from street level

Visitor Center entrance lobby fountain

Massive equipment

By-product Methane is used for heating the plant

Jim Pynn explains that from this command station, six people
will control the entire 53-acre plant’s operation

Views of the plant from atop the digester eggs,
some 140 feet above the street on a skybridge

Digester egg from street and from skybridge

Views across the East River to Manhattan from skybridge

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