My Neighbours The Yamadas (Review)
Friday, 13th May 2011, 17:21

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Although I said in my review of Laputa: Castle in the Sky that Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki are virtually synonymous, there have been some outstanding films made by other directors working within the studio such as Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1986), Pom Poko (Isao Takahata, 1994) and Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kond, 1996. My personal favourite of these is Grave of the Fireflies, an outstanding film that is equal to any other animated film made in the 20th century yet the animation style couldn't be more different to that in My Neighbours the Yamadas, made nine years later, also by Isao Takahata.

This film follows the Yamada family, husband and wife Takashi and Matsuoka, their mother/mother-in-law Shige, their teenage son, Noboru and young daughter Nonoko, plus Pochi, their dog. From the title, I thought this would be told from the perspective of their next door neighbour but it isn't, with the film comprising a series of vignettes focusing on different aspects of family life and told either from the perspective of a family member or completely objectively.

It opens with Noboru introducing you to his grandma, who stops by a neighbour's front garden and begins looking at some flowers before being extremely complimentary about one. When the gardener tells her what type of flowers is, she replies that she wasn't interested in the flower and was talking to the caterpillar! She isn't your ordinary old woman but, much to her daughter's frustration, is displaying some signs of dementia and her odd behaviour occasionally drives her to distraction.

Over the course of the various chapters, each introduced by a caption and, if you're watching with the English dub, some narration, giving the title which is a clue of what to expect. Over the course of the film, we see Nonoko being left behind at the department store and her family's frantic search fare when they eventually notice she isn't in the car, Noboru flunking his exams and desperately studying in order to remedy the situation, Takashi trying to bond with Noboru over a game of catch in the back garden and Matsuoka's culinary skills (the film begins with Noboru asking what's for tea and, when the answer is curry, observing his mother has cooked that for the past five days.

My Neighbours the Yamadas is unlike any other Studio Ghibli film I've seen, partially due to the comic strip-like animation which is extremely different to the rich tapestries of Hayao Miyazaki's film and even the finely detailed and extraordinary graphic visuals in Grave of the Fireflies -- I would have never guessed that this was directed by the same man who made that brilliant and heart-wrenching war film. In content, this is quite light with some broad humour, such as when Noboru dismays at his sister's voracious appetite for all things cake and chocolate related but also some dry humour verging on satire when it comes to their relationship with the next door neighbour and an odd solution to the problem of where to hold a croquet match.

I hadn't seen the front cover until after I saw the film and didn't read up about it in order to go in as open-minded as possible so the animation style, content and extremely small scale (there is none of the epic grandeur of Miyazaki's films) took me a little by surprise. However, it wasn't long before the film warmed on me because of its wonderful observational humour, well rounded and engaging characters and repeated gags, such as Pochi’s repeated appearances, permanently laid in his kennel with a world weary expression on his face.

The voice acting, in both the original Japanese and English dub, is very good, with the cast in doing a perfect job of matching the actor to the character. I'm not familiar with any of the Japanese actors, but they all make their characters come to life. In terms of the English language cast, the mother and father are played by Molly Shannon and James Belushi, respectively, and they do a terrific job. Prolific voice actress Tress MacNeille, whose name many will recognise from her appearances on The Simpsons and Futurama, is very well suited to the grandmother whilst the two child actors, Daryl Sabara and Liliana Mumy, are very well suited to their characters.

Overall, My Neighbours the Yamadas is extremely watchable and charming film with surprisingly effective animation considering its simplicity, great characters and a smart screenplay with some great observational humour.

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