Comments | brendala: Spoiler-free review: Ghibli's "The Secret World of Arrietty"

brendala

Spoiler-free review: Ghibli's "The Secret World of Arrietty"

Feb 20, 2012 22:32

I saw The Secret World of Arrietty on Sunday and I thought I'd give my two cents on it here (and leave out the spoilers for those who haven't seen it).

Arrietty had the same "slice of life" tone and feel as Totoro. Nothing really "big" happened until the end. Most of the fun in this film comes from watching the creative way the tiny race of ( Read more... )

review, disney, anime

Comments 6

earthstar_moon February 21 2012, 17:01:26 UTC

I saw it the other day, and I really enjoyed it. I will admit, I think the voices for the parents were good, but Shawn's voice actor could have been way better. I do wish Disney would stop putting in Disney Channel stars too because that's what really ruined Ponyo for me ( ... )

brendala February 22 2012, 02:22:56 UTC

I liked the parents, too. It's weird. I can't stand Amy Pohler (the actress who played Arrietty's mom) when I see her live-action work. But I think she's a fantastic voice actress. Maybe she just has better luck when it comes to choosing animated projects ( ... )

earthstar_moon February 22 2012, 03:12:24 UTC

I will admit, I might have been affected by the fact that I managed to hear the Japanese voice cast first and they did get real five year olds to do the kids. ^_~

Good grief, that's got to be frustrating. Voice acting is a different form than live action acting, you would think they would want to get people who have experience with it. *sigh* Let's just hope someday these big companies take a hint eventually.

ichiban_victory February 22 2012, 20:14:44 UTC

To be fair, Disney has been casting its employed acting talent since forever ago. (Even the late voice actor for Mickey started off as a custodian for the company.) They have that pool of talent close by, and I imagine they have predetermined rates to pay them for the work, so why not go with it?

On the other hand, using people who are seasoned voice actors doesn't always make for the best choice. After all, the voice for your iconic character above was most famous for co-starring with a talking horse back in the day. ;)

brendala February 22 2012, 22:12:59 UTC

I'm not saying that "celebrity" stunt casting is ALWAYS wrong. After all, Pohler and Burnett were also hired for their names (they're also WAY more famous than their young co-stars) and I liked them in this movie. I just wish they'd only hire celebrities who have interesting voices. Or at least have ALL the actors sound bland so the difference between the voice actors and the name actors isn't so distracting.

Good point about Alan Young. However, at least he actually has the acting chops to hold his own with the likes of Frank Welker and June Foray. And it's not like the old Ducktales promos made a huge deal about him being in the show.

ichiban_victory February 23 2012, 00:05:36 UTC

There was no point advertising the voice actor, since the target audience wouldn't have known him from Mister Ed anyway. (Not all of us watched that show...although I sure did!) Also, he was in Mickey's Christmas Carol before Ducktales. O:)