Mamoru Hosoda has three times dazzled me with his films and has caught me in ways that other brilliant directors like him have beautiful but simple and heartfelt stories with a simple animation style that could easily rival the best CGI film out there and Wolf Children proves to be all of these and more. The simple little tale of an unusual family of a human mother with two half-wolf-children finding their way in the world and coming to terms with their nature in their own ways. The first part of the film tells us the heartwarming tale of the woman who fell for a man she loved only to tragically lose him an accident and now having to figure out how to make due by her self and not let the world know their secret. With the first act told very simply as a love story it captivates the adult audience and sets the stage for the rest of the story to come.
As the years go buy the children grow older and start to discover more about their own selves and start to change from their early childhood selves. The once aggressive and spunky Yuki takes on a more mature and graceful persona to better fit into human society but her brother Ame who started out as a timid and resentful child grows to be more in tune with nature. The two parallel stories that take an opposite turn which makes for an unexpected change in tone but a brilliant piece of storytelling.
I watched the film English dubbed from FUNimation which brings out an amazing cast including Colleen Clinkenbeard as Hana who nails her role and gives off an Oscar worthy performance. Playing the at times frustrated, panicked and love struck character of Hana she shows her incredible range of acting abilities. They also followed the Japanese casting choices by getting separate actors for the older and younger versions of Ame and Yuki. The entire cast could also be spoken for as they all give wonderful performances and I'm sure the same could be said for the Japanese cast.
As to be expected Hosoda gives a brilliant visual spectacle with the animation combining the old traditional hand techniques with new CGI and even motion capture techniques. The simple use of transformations for the young children over a morphing animation I thought was effective and simple be it for artistic or economic and practicality reasons. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto once again gives Hosoda his simple but effective character designs.
I found my self glued to the two hour film and constantly reminiscing on it and wanting to watch it again and again. While I loved Hosoda's Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time they didn't quite captivate me like Wolf Children did. It's a sweet and endearing film with a lot of heart the same charm of Steven Spielberg's early films and it's sure to tug on your heart strings quite a bit. It's a shame FUNimation didn't submit this for Oscar consideration because I'm sure it would have been a contender. A beautiful family film though may be a bit on the slow side for some children. Simple flaws maybe but easily overlooked when you get into the experience.
As the years go buy the children grow older and start to discover more about their own selves and start to change from their early childhood selves. The once aggressive and spunky Yuki takes on a more mature and graceful persona to better fit into human society but her brother Ame who started out as a timid and resentful child grows to be more in tune with nature. The two parallel stories that take an opposite turn which makes for an unexpected change in tone but a brilliant piece of storytelling.
I watched the film English dubbed from FUNimation which brings out an amazing cast including Colleen Clinkenbeard as Hana who nails her role and gives off an Oscar worthy performance. Playing the at times frustrated, panicked and love struck character of Hana she shows her incredible range of acting abilities. They also followed the Japanese casting choices by getting separate actors for the older and younger versions of Ame and Yuki. The entire cast could also be spoken for as they all give wonderful performances and I'm sure the same could be said for the Japanese cast.
As to be expected Hosoda gives a brilliant visual spectacle with the animation combining the old traditional hand techniques with new CGI and even motion capture techniques. The simple use of transformations for the young children over a morphing animation I thought was effective and simple be it for artistic or economic and practicality reasons. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto once again gives Hosoda his simple but effective character designs.
I found my self glued to the two hour film and constantly reminiscing on it and wanting to watch it again and again. While I loved Hosoda's Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time they didn't quite captivate me like Wolf Children did. It's a sweet and endearing film with a lot of heart the same charm of Steven Spielberg's early films and it's sure to tug on your heart strings quite a bit. It's a shame FUNimation didn't submit this for Oscar consideration because I'm sure it would have been a contender. A beautiful family film though may be a bit on the slow side for some children. Simple flaws maybe but easily overlooked when you get into the experience.