Review: Wonderful ‘When Marnie Was Here’ may be Studio Ghibli’s final movie

Posted on January 22, 2016

By MARK VIOLA

I’ve never made it a secret that Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki is one of my favorite directors of all time, having been responsible for such movies as “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Princess Mononoke” and “Castle in the Sky.” I’ve often called him the Walt Disney of Japan, and if that is true, Studio Ghibli is his Walt Disney Studios. In the wake of Miyazaki’s retirement after “The Wind Rises,” however, there has been much doubt about the future of Studio Ghibli, which is taking a supposedly temporary hiatus from producing films. If this break becomes permanent,  fellow director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s (“The Secret World of Arietty”) latest project, “When Marnie Was There,” would be the venerable studio’s final movie.

And while I would mourn the loss of the studio, this would not be a terrible movie to go out on, giving us all of the beautiful animation we’ve come to expect along with a compelling, heartfelt story about a young girl trying desperately to find her place in a world she feels doesn’t care about her.

I’m betting most people outside Japanese anime fans in general and Ghibli fans in particular haven’t heard of this one, at least not before the Academy Award nominations were announced last week when it picked up a Best Animated Feature nod. After receiving a very limited release in the spring of 2015, the film has been available on DVD and Blu-ray since last summer, but I didn’t get a chance to watch it myself until this past weekend as part of my attempt to finally wrap up 2015.

Although I’m not sure I would rank it among Miyazaki’s better works, it is an entirely wonderful experience which left me in wonder and delight through much of its runtime and might have even produced a few tears during its emotional conclusion. I would normally watch a movie like this in its native Japanese, (with subtitles) but for the purposes of this review I watched the English-language dub and it’s quite good indeed, leaving me with no urge to re-watch it subtitled. Although it’s not your traditional animated product as far as what get here in the U.S., and there is not much in the way of action, there is plenty to enjoy for audiences both young and old.

“When Marnie Was Here” tells a wonderfully emotional story featuring real characters with real problems, all delivered with stunning animation. This isn’t the kind of animated film we’ve been trained to expect here in the U.S., but it is well worth checking out.

The film is rated PG for thematic elements and smoking.

(This is a abbreviated version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

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