#79 - My Neighbors the Yamadas

"Konichiwa Bitches!" Did you miss me? Haven't been able to watch many DVD's because work has been insane lately. That's right, some of us have to work. We can't all hang out in Kodiak, AK. We can't all go to renaissance fairs on the east coast. We can't all sell candles in St. Louis. We can't all get stuck in a 4/4-12bar-autopilot. I don't even know what the hell that means. But it sounds painful? The point is, I just haven't been able to keep up on this little dog and pony show I have here. I have a couple of DVD's to review, this being one of them, and I hope to watch a couple this week, but I make no guarantees. Also, it doesn't look like work is going to be slowing up any time soon, so you'll just have to deal with it. Oh yeah, football season means no movie watching on Sundays until sometime after January. If you can't deal with it, all I can do is give you the words of a co-worker: "Suck it up and walk it off".

We gots us here some more cartoons. But instead of being another crappy Don Bluth cartoon, it's a Japanese cartoon with dubbed english, much like Princess Mononoke. But that's where the similarities end. This is not anime. As you can see from the picture, it doesn't even look like the anime style. There are some moments where you see it, but for the most part this looks like Family Circus: Japan Edition. The animation style is quite interesting because you have the family members front and center and some of the background, but it doesn't fill up the whole screen. It kind of floats on the screen that in a way that is reminiscent of the way the episodic vignettes flow from one to another. Some are short little jokes, while others have longer story lines. The interesting thing is that there are moments when they break away from this style into a completely different style for that scene. It reminded me of Waking Life, but it was only for a couple of scenes and not the whole movie. Visually it was interesting, but I can't say that I could see any reason for it, but that may be a cultural thing. Think of how Kung Fu Hustle jumped in and out of styles, but not as extreme.

Overall, this movie was amusing. I can't give the best reviews to Jim Belushi and Molly Shannon for the english voices, because they were either annoying or didn't fit the character. But I found myself seeing something different from what I expect to see in this kind of movie. Usually, I expect a movie like this to be more sarcastic or darkly absurd. But there is some bitterness and some really vicious things that go on in this movie, and it's truly bizarre to watch these thing happen in a sunday morning Family Circus type of package. This is where the cultural difference really hit me. I found myself wondering if a Japanese audience and look at some of our things and think that they done in an odd way. In a way, it took me out of the movie because I was focusing on how it was different from what I was used to, and not watching it for what it was.

Usually I hate it when I think too much about a movie as it is going on, unless the movie is asking me to do so. I like to be in the moment and take what they are giving as they give it. In other words, I try my best to go on the journey that the filmmakers are trying to take me on. As you know, it doesn't always work out that way. When it is because I am analyzing the film, I don't like it. It takes away from that journey, and when it's my fault, which in this case it is, I get disgruntled with myself. To make a long story short, I don't think I gave this movie it's full due. I think it's worth another look at some point. I would recommend it if you are an animation buff, but it's not really anything you wanna get a bunch of friend over to watch for a bunch of laughs.