Forum - View topicREVIEW: The Boy and The Beast
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ParaChomp
 Posts: 1018 |
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Aside from that, it's sad to read about a movie get such bad reception especially when it was nominated for an Oscar.
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2251 |
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It's in the Animated Film category. That means it's likely being judged for it's animation quality, rather than as a whole. Case in point? That terrible Divergent movie was also nominated for an Oscar--in the music category. 
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I thought Best Animated Film was just a place to put animated films so they don't have to be in the Best Picture category and that they judge the winners based on their total quality--it just happens to be restricted as a group of movies.
Oh yeah, in addition to it being at 75% on Rotten Tomatoes (though still only from 4 reviews), the Internet Movie Database currently puts it at 7.7. Again though, we should wait until the theatrical release to see what its reception is once it reaches a greater audience. |
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ParaChomp
Posts: 1018 |
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whiskeyii
Posts: 2251 |
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Perhaps I should be more specific. One is that there isn't an animation category, but second is that the animation category nominees tend to be nominated by industry animators. That's ostensibly why The LEGO Movie was passed over; aside from industry folks feeling that it was little more than a glorified toy commercial, it allegedly did little to further the field of animation--as opposed to, say, the painstaking work of stop-motion as something of a dying art. I tend to find that movies that make it in to the Animated Film category do so on the basis of their animation as a first priority. I'm not saying other aspects don't factor in, but animation weighs most heavily in why those films make the cut. TL;DR: The Oscar nomination seems more like an indication of high animation quality, rather than overall quality. EDIT: Not that Oscar nominations and/or snubs are any real indication of quality, I just thought I'd clarify my statements from before. It's just a trend I've noticed in the Animated Film categories--and possibly why Pixar tends to sweep them. >.> |
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koinosuke
 Posts: 273 Location: Fukushima, Japan |
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Pretty much in agreement with the review here. While there were parts of the movie I liked enough to not really be able to say I hated Boy and the Beast, it felt very, very weak compared with Wolf Children. I saw it opening weekend here in Japan and I think "underwhelmed" is the word everyone in my viewing group used. It's really too bad, because Wolf Children was one of my favorite Japanese movies of the past five years.
And I don't think I've seen anyone else mention this, but I felt like the scene where Kyuta wanders into the Spirit Realm was ripped almost entirely from Spirited Away. The direction, imagery, music, and even color used in that scene were so close to the scene were Chihiro enters the realm of the gods. Definitly felt like it stepped over the line from homage to pure aping. |
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Baagendaaz
Posts: 3 |
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Looks like another seasoned anime critic has taken a stab at the film as here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=181979198#post181979198
Meanwhile another one outside of anime but learned in Japanese society and academia gave a good insight as to how this film compares to Spirit Away: http://carlcassegard.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-boy-and-beast-and-claustrophobia-of.html Something not mentioned yet is that a lot of the exposition problems boil down to an unfortunate Japanese production problem common with most recent commercial films. In the Variety article titled “Self control is Killing Japanese movie prospects”, a veteran screenwriter is all too well aware of films as overwritten as this one, in that they are created by and for producers and film committees rather than just by an artist with a vision: “A lot of these so-called producers (on the production committee) are not film people and don’t know how to read a script,” adds Inoue. “In a film you can say a lot without words, but these guys don’t get that. And when they say ‘I don’t understand,’ someone has to add explanations to the script. The film becomes longer — and more boring.” It does seem like this is the case considering how commercialized this movie was in Japan compared to his previous works, spanning a novel, a kids book, a bookstore collaboration, a drink commercial, and a song by the hit singer Mr. Children (in the same way the upcoming Zootopia is now being peppered with a Shakira song). Otaku USA critic Matt Schley says that Ghibli and Miyazaki never stooped to this level of commercialism before they shut down. I beginning to wonder if there was originally a good reason for Ren to run away (like being abused, being a bastard son like Wabisuke from SW) but it was written out as a way to avoid possible controversy for a broad audience. Also does anyone know why the boy's parents ever divorced? |
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Black Thunder 6
Posts: 128 |
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It wasn't nominated in fact all the films that made the cut were all superior to it. It'll win its obligatory Japanese Oscar but considering crap like Love Live and the Yokai Watch movie have nominations its become a joke in itself. |
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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Ugh... these comments.
Too many try-hard contrarians and hipsters on these boards. I'm not specifically referring to the people who didn't like the movie (whatever, it's your opinion), just the ones whose posts generally fall along the lines of "Ha! I told you guys this guy's movies were actually crap this entire time!" Like, seriously. Don't break your arm jerking yourselves. Congratulations for being special snowflakes, you are truly one of a kind and completely unique. Also I have no idea why people care so much about ratings. We have people talking about how they're anticipating what the future IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes scores will be. Are you for real? Why are those so important to you? Those sites are corrupt and heavily flawed anyway, they're hardly reliable sources for opinions on movies. And then you have that one guy who's so clearly and poorly trying to devolve this thread into an anti The Force Awakens forum as if that has any relevance to anything (also: get over it). I haven't seen this yet. I loved Wolf Children and Summer Wars though. Let's see if I enjoy this one as well. I don't set high expectations because that almost always ruins the fun for you with movies. And even if it doesn't, everyone else is still going to try and tell you that that popular movie you liked is actually garbage or whatever. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Disclaimer: I haven't seen and wasn't planning to watch this one, so just going on the review and "reading an anime by its cover..."
To me, it sort of feels like Hosoda started with a very short list of movie ideas, and he's already used them up. Girl Who Leapt Through Time was great. Summer Wars, also great... but (supposedly) a remake of a Digimon movie he did years before. Then there was Wolf Children, which was a well-constructed movie but didn't feel the least bit unique or personal, as if it was written by a committee promoting the virtues of motherhood and low-tech lifestyles. Also felt vaguely sexist, with spoiler[the father tragically dead so he doesn't have to do any child-rearing, the boy going full wolf, and the girl going full well-behaved human.] Regardless of whether Boy and the Beast is a good movie, it doesn't look like a new idea. It's seemingly the counterpart to Wolf Children (which itself didn't feel like a new idea) with more of the same boring gender stereotypes. Maybe I'm just getting too jaded... but I probably won't be looking forward to his next movie. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Nah, that was just me. In both cases, I was demonstrating that reception to The Boy and the Beast has rarely been as negative as this review. Rotten Tomatoes is for opinions of professional reviewers; IMDb is for opinions of general viewers. Which sites should I trust for movie reviews, if I can't trust those? |
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Baagendaaz
Posts: 3 |
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I guess once the film reaches a wider audience in March, those reviews might become more mixed overall. Though most have been calling Hosoda the next Miyazaki I wonder if he'll instead become the Don Bluth of Japan: starting off with darker, more interesting films and then making formulaic sickly sweet strictly-for-little-kids stuff a decade later.
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Anti_Nadalista
Posts: 89 |
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never trust ANN for reviews or anything actually. wolf children formulaic? Hahaha
All his films including summer wars had smart directing behind It. This guy is a very talented filmmaker. Saying he is the next Miyazaki is a insult, for Hosoda. He also in a situation where his original material is doing quite well in the boxoffice. In my opinion he is a better storyteller than Miyazaki. |
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Jayhosh
Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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None. They mold large amounts of opinions into a less than satisfactory weighted average a large portion of the time. But if all you want is to compare the critical and user ratings on the film, I guess it makes sense as to why you'd be interested in them. Also, to the people who constantly pull out the "next Miyazaki" card: When people say that, they mean he's an animator/director who makes good Japanese animated films. And that's where the similarities and comparisons end for the most part. You don't have to get your knickers in a twist any time someone says that. People also say Makoto Shinkai is the next Miyazaki all the time. Why? Because just the fact that you have talented people making good animated films in Japan is enough to warrant those comparisons in such an unimaginative and bland industry. When I can show my family films like Wolf Children and 5 Centimeters Per Second and they actually like them, then I know these people have managed to break down the cultural barriers and just make good, pleasing films. |
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BringBackUzume
 Posts: 161 |
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Instead of referring to Hosoda-san as the "next Miyazaki", can we just refer to those films as "on par with Studio Ghibli films"? It seems to evoke the same meaning, but doesn't actually pull Miyazaki's name in to the conversation |
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