Movie – Giovanni's Island

Movie – Giovanni's Island

Original title : Jobanni no shima

Score : 2/10  

Year : 2014

Director:  Mizuho Nishikubo

Country: Japan

Language: Japanese

Duration: 1h42

Writers: Shigemichi Sugita (story & screenplay) ; Yoshiki Sakurai (screenplay) ; Wendee Lee (adaptation) 

Uneven and even lazy art, screaming from 2 kids and an adult several times throughout the movie to a point where i had to close my ears with my hands.. this was a let down experience !
Indeed, the landscapes, waters, shadows, snow & snowstorm, a stag, flowers, all of it was really gorgeous and ought to be viewed on a big screen.

However, humans were drawn lazily with a quality far below the rest of the movie that it made it a very uneven artwork. Most were even ugly, and It seemed that a character's grandchild was just copy pasted from the original character... Although sometimes it can happen, I think this was too lazy for me to pass.

The overall score & music was ok, but there were too many singing scenes, which were way too loud for my taste. I did appreciate part of the social commentary in a couple of them, but not their execution on screen.

The main 2 kids and their uncle shout way too much in the movie, even though not as badly as during the Totoro movie... still, this has caused me to ponder why the hell do some japanimation movies give us so much screaming, and also to hate these parts because I had to cover my ears with my hands when it became WAY too much. Great, I left the theatre about an hour ago and I still have tinnitus from this... blah !

Overall i have to score this movie 2/10,  because it was a letdown, somewhat predictable and too painful to watch.