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Suzume Spoiler Discussion
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Makoto Shinkai's latest film, Suzume, continues the trend of of anime films being more and more successful at the global box office; the Animation Deliberation team is here to delve into our spoilery opinions and reactions to the flick!
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview of Suzume
00:00:01
Speaker
On another exciting episode of the Animation Deliberation podcast, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo, we're talking about Suzume. This movie is still in theaters and we are excited to talk about all our thoughts on it. Right up to these ads, we have no control over it.
00:00:18
Speaker
Sing along if you know the words. Animation deliberation. Can't do it. All right. One, two, three, it's time for animation deliberation. A conversation and a celebration of our favorite action animated series.
Initial Impressions and Film Highlights
00:00:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Welcome back to another episode of animation deliberation, the podcast where we take action animation and cartoon seriously, but not too seriously. We are your hosts. I am Zuhara Lee.
00:00:48
Speaker
My name is Jay Scotty Sinclair. And I am Andrew Rogers. And since the first time we heard the trailer for this movie, this song has been stuck in our heads. As you can see, that has not worn off. We were excited about how it was played in the movie during the credits, on our phones every day. I go to bed to the low five version every night. Incredible music, incredible movie. I'm excited to talk about it. How did you guys like just quick thoughts on the movie, Susan, before I drop some facts on you?
00:01:16
Speaker
Andrew, take the wheel. I've had the opportunity to give my brief thoughts previously, so by all means.
00:01:23
Speaker
It's a fantastic movie. Go see it. I mean, that's the that's the play in simple way that I want to say this. I knew nothing going in it. I'm sure my two co hosts are going to talk the same because the trailer like gives you none of what this story is. So feel free to watch the trailer. If you just want to go see a pretty movie with great music, great sound and characters that you're going to fall in love with. This is it. That's the best that I can give spoiler free because like you just will fall in love with this
00:01:48
Speaker
Mundane world because it's normal japan with some small tweaks in there but besides that it's just taking the everyday world and showing you the beauty of people the beauty of a world that you can explore and so much more about it so i had an astounding time i absolutely adored and.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, I want to say more. But that's where I'll cut myself off for spoiler free section. But if for some reason you're listening trying to gauge, oh, will this be good or not? It's a great film, like hands down, go see it. It's one of the best films that I've seen in the past few months for sure. I'm gonna address that after J. Scott is done. Well, with that,
00:02:31
Speaker
With that going before us, where do I even go? No, I will just echo those sentiments. I will say the visual treat that this film is is worth the price of admission alone. I saw this thing in Laser IMAX at AMC and wow, the colors, the fidelity,
00:02:51
Speaker
The journey it takes you on is an emotional one and a satisfying one. So I wholeheartedly agree.
Theater Culture and Social Media Influence
00:02:59
Speaker
Go see this thing. I mean, if you're one of the few people that are fans of animation that have not seen this thing yet. So what Andrew said triggered me a little bit just because there's been a lot of these conversations going on with just movies lately of
00:03:15
Speaker
For the people who don't go, I go to Marvel and DC movies specifically as soon as possible, and it's becoming movies in general, because I want to form my own opinion before anybody has the opportunity to taint it.
00:03:32
Speaker
Sure. And I feel like, okay, so maybe the theater, like going to the theater culture is going down, but it's been bothering me whether you're a diehard movie fan or not. How many people have been like, what did you think about it? I've heard this. Give me a grade on it. Do I need to know this before I do? It's like, go watch the fucking movie and find out for yourself. Like, I feel like this art of just
00:03:56
Speaker
Being intrigued with something and then finding the opportunity to engage with it is just really, really dying down. It bums me out a lot. Yeah.
00:04:09
Speaker
Well, I just want to ask the question because I kind of agree it's dying down. But I don't know the reason why, because I don't know necessarily about either of you. And I'm very curious because all three of us are living in very different locations. My theater was packed, like to the brim, people in the front rows where you don't usually see them on that opening night. Like people were there for this movie. It was an all out and the energy was great.
00:04:36
Speaker
everyone was there to have a good time so. Is the theater culture dying out or is it the way that we talk about it and i'm not trying to argue the point i'm just curious did you guys have a similar experience in your theater cuz my theater was great. Mine was.
00:04:51
Speaker
Mine felt like a matinee showing even though multiple theaters were used for this movie, but my theater only has one IMAX one. So the IMAX one wasn't that full, but when I posted that I went to see it, a lot of people texted or commented saying that they were looking forward to go watch it. So attendance isn't my issue.
00:05:14
Speaker
as much as the willingness to watch things or the necessity to know as much as possible before going into it. I don't know if the MCU has done this with people needing to know comic book stuff to fully get it, but like even episodes of Demon Slayer, it's like I'll send a snap of like the opener saying, hey, like, you know, time for a new episode. And people are like, what was your grade on it? What did you think of it? It's like,
00:05:43
Speaker
Why can't we talk about it after you've seen it? Like, why can't you form your opinion and know what you thought about said movie or show or book or food or whatever and come up with this stuff as opposed to, like, I need to know not to watch it beforehand? Like, is it really the worst thing in the world to, like, go into a movie and just not be your cup of tea?
00:06:07
Speaker
I feel like I have two things to address here. So I'm going to start with what Andrew brought up about my theater experience now. Bear in mind, I did see this on a Monday night, so I can only imagine what it had been, what it would have been like if I had seen it on a Friday, Saturday, or even Sunday. But for a Monday night showing, it was pretty substantially, you know, people showed up for it. And I don't know if they were, you know,
00:06:33
Speaker
interacting with what was happening on the screen in a very noticeable way, but it seemed like everybody was kind of enraptured with what was happening and really enjoyed it. So especially for a Monday, and again, I think my theater has two IMAX screens. So the fact that they allocated at least one of those to this movie, I think speaks to the level of attention that this movie had on it and kind of the fervor that was there for it.
00:07:02
Speaker
regarding this whole other conversation about the movie going experience and whether or not people are really showing up the way that they used to, I think there's a lot of factors to take into consideration.
00:07:15
Speaker
I do think movie attendance as a whole since COVID is still recovering, but from some of the other YouTube shows that I watch and podcasts that I listen to, I know this last weekend was actually one of the better weekends for movie attendance. It's actually when they compare it back to what numbers looked like from 2016 to 2019 or 2015 to 2019. On average, this was a better weekend for this time of year than what we were seeing during that time.
00:07:47
Speaker
As far as whether or not people want to go see something before they've had a chance to hear the word of mouth or reviews or anything like that, I think that is a side effect of social media and the internet. As great as it is to become more connected and have everybody be able to give their two cents. We are all living in different parts of the country, but we're able to talk about this stuff and connect.
00:08:11
Speaker
Unfortunately, that does have negative side effects as well. I won't say everybody, but when everybody is able to put their opinion out there, it's almost like everybody's a reviewer. I do think it's just a sign of how much content is really out there between all the streaming services.
00:08:32
Speaker
I'm signed up to it. I'm signed up for at least five streaming services off the top of my head. So when it comes to like, am I going to see something in theaters? I am a big advocate for going to see things on the big screen and I'm like, use your hair. Like I don't want to know a lot. I have a few trusted reviewers that I might listen to like non-spoiler thoughts or like a quick headline just to get an idea of what they thought. But for the most part, I like to go in blind, especially for stuff I'm really anticipating.
00:08:58
Speaker
It's, it's kind of a catch 22. It's, it's the world that we live in now. People are more connected than ever and people can get opinions whether they want them or not. They're so available. Yeah. And I apologize to the listener that I started it off this way because this is a movie that I was very excited for. It's one that I'm very excited to talk about, but like going to the movies and watching shows is like, it's, it's a very important part of my life because, you know, dealing with,
00:09:26
Speaker
Depression and anxiety and things of that sort like sitting down for a movie that I've never seen before a show like that Experience of turning my brain on brain off and getting lost in whatever I'm consuming is like super important to me so it's like the fact that I Guess people don't share that
00:09:46
Speaker
because I like I'm pride. I take pride in the fact that when someone asks me about a movie, I can keep it like a spoiler free as possible. And like I tried to ask questions about shows to like make sure because I'm just trying to be considered to make sure that people who want the experience like get the full experience. So it like, it just
00:10:04
Speaker
It bothers me that it's coming to this when we could have conversations about, like, this is what I felt about it, this is what I saw, this is what I heard, too. This is what this person said, so I didn't watch it because of that, and this actor did this, so I'm not interested in this and that anymore.
00:10:24
Speaker
There's a magic with film and TV that I feel like is just very underappreciated lately. So apologies, but that was just something that I'm super passionate about. I'm very sleep deprived right now too. So I got much quicker than I intended to. Well, guess what, sir? You now have your platform where you can give this positive outlook that you would hope that others could give to you. So I know, because I've heard a little bit of this,
00:10:54
Speaker
lay it on us. What did you think of the movies who hair? Because I think you were the driving force behind this conversation when it. Yes. Speaking of positive outlook, if you guys want to give us a positive outlook and leave a five star review, that would be great. It helps the show. It helps us feel good about ourselves. So yeah, please take a moment to do that. And also go to Strandepanda.com to show love to the other shows that talk about other things that people are passionate about in fandom. I absolutely love this movie.
00:11:23
Speaker
I absolutely love this movie. I went in for that particular song and just the beautiful animation, but the sound design captured me more than anything else. I think that's what really threw me off because I had high bars for the other things.
00:11:38
Speaker
I had never watched a Makado Shinkai movie before this trailer dropped. So I had only seen your name before this because again, people share too much information and said that this movie may be connected and yada yada. And I'm just kind of like now I went in with these perceptions of anyways.
00:12:01
Speaker
I did go in with a high bar. I felt like it met that bar. I can't wait to watch it again.
Suzume's Success and Cultural Impact
00:12:06
Speaker
I had a wonderful time watching it. And apparently we aren't the only ones that enjoyed it as much as we did because Makoto Shinkai Suzume has surpassed Jujutsu Kaisen Zero becoming the 15th highest grossing film of all time in Japan. It is also the ninth highest grossing anime film of all time in Japan. So we love Jujutsu Kaisen Zero. So congratulations to them for having that much hype behind them.
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, those are some impressive numbers. Get on you, Makoto Shinkai and Susan. I'm glad to hear that it's resonating and generating so much positive buzz and business despite whatever naysayers may be out there. I've been free from that realm, I guess, for lack of a better term. Yeah, but I mean, I think it's also the fact that it is
00:12:59
Speaker
not only in Japan, but outside of Japan, it is doing successful. Like, unfortunately, that is one of the metrics that we have to measure by because it is, you know, meant for a Japanese audience. This is however, number one, in terms of the highest selling anime film of all time in both China and Korea.
00:13:17
Speaker
So they have done a fantastic job in the Asian market. But then coming over to the US market, they still earned around 5 million opening weekend, and we're number two across the box office the entire weekend that it came out, which for an anime film to be even cracking up into those numbers, I'm not sure what beat it out that first weekend. But I will say it was just totally up there.
00:13:44
Speaker
Is this the worldwide box office or domestic? I think that was just domestic. It had to be the Super Mario Brothers then. That thing is still... Oh yeah, obviously that's the other animated thing. So animation's taking over, which is really cool. But yeah, it's super successful all over the place. And I'm ready to talk about specifically why. I don't know if any of you have any more spoiler free thoughts to say.
00:14:10
Speaker
One quick thing I want to address is, Zuhair, you mentioned how you hadn't seen anything from Makoto Shinkai prior to this trailer, and I hadn't seen
00:14:20
Speaker
anything either, but after seeing this movie, I enjoyed this movie so much that I have gone just in this weekend. I watched both Your Name, which I had always heard the best things about, but was fortunate enough to have avoided all spoilers whatsoever. And then I also watched Weathering with You. And I kind of touched on it when we did our brief thoughts there, but I am grateful for the viewing experience that I had because
00:14:45
Speaker
Again, without spoiling anything, I think Makoto Shinkai kind of has a niche. He has these things that he really likes. He likes setting things in a modern, seemingly normal world with some supernatural elements of mythology. He likes to have characters that
00:15:05
Speaker
Are in a kind of star cross lovers is the best best way i'll describe it and the man likes his product placement as well because We got a whole sequence with mcdonald's But yeah, that's that's all I got in terms of non-spoilery yeah, I I don't think I can add too much to that that's non-spoilery because
00:15:32
Speaker
I noticed a theme with how the movies end. Do you see where I'm going with this without saying too much? I think so. I don't know if you're talking about on a deeper level. I could take it both ways. I could take it very literally. Visually. Okay, the title cards.
00:15:55
Speaker
in title card, right? Okay. Yeah. I'm just not going to say too much then. Okay. All right. Sorry. The way that things are paced and placed are very intriguing and very consistent. And it's something that I just really want to look out for more.
00:16:21
Speaker
with more movies that i'm gonna watch by hand because i still need to see weathering with you but there was enough comparisons between your name and susan may that i was like oh this has to be like his thing right this is a signature right here it has to be so once i watch weathering with you i will confirm if if he does indeed have a signature all right before we go on to
00:16:48
Speaker
all of our spoiler talk of what we thought about this.
BlendJet 2 Portable Blender Review
00:16:51
Speaker
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00:17:17
Speaker
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00:17:40
Speaker
But in this case, if you're not in the theater, do blend. Do all your blending pretty much everywhere else except for the theater. Yes, because it would be disruptive in a theater, but it is not disruptive in most other walks of life. Honestly, you can do it at any time of day. We had a blender in our kitchen that I had to be like, all right, I can't use this.
00:18:03
Speaker
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00:18:29
Speaker
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00:21:12
Speaker
Now on to spoiler talk of Susume.
Detailed Analysis of Suzume's Narrative and Characters
00:21:15
Speaker
We talked about not only did we go into this movie without knowing anything about it, but how much we appreciate going to movies without knowing anything about it. It definitely is a lost art and everything that I have watched, all two things.
00:21:29
Speaker
of Makata Shinkai have been incredible in just going in blind. I did not know what the story was going to be about, so when we had this opening sequence of trying to shut this door and we have our character
00:21:46
Speaker
Susan may taking Sota to her place to patch him up and everything and we see Dijon for the first time on the windowsill and She says you are in my way and he just disappears. I cannot tell you how my heart just stopped and
00:22:03
Speaker
Because I didn't know what was happening. This chair was not in the trailers at all. There was no indication of what was going to happen. It was just a shock in the moment of, oh my god, this man turned into a chair. But I was genuinely like, where did he go? What happened to him? What is this dark kitty doing? I know they're all evil, but what is happening right now?
00:22:26
Speaker
So like that shock factor of not knowing what this plot was going to be about despite watching the trailer as many times as I did before the theaters was just such an incredible experience because I was just. I know I tell you guys to stay well, but I was definitely overwhelmed with just the excitement of like literally not knowing what was coming next and what the direction was and where this was going. This movie was so much fun.
00:22:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, I just want to stop and talk about that cold open because it was exactly that a stone cold open. I expect this movie is going to ramp up, it's going to have a little time where we figure out the world and figure out what's going on. Within the first 10 minutes, you are slapped in the face with the door and the worm and everything else that like is basically the crux of what the story is going to be built on. And then
00:23:18
Speaker
they hit you with an old school classic title card right at the end of that to be like, all right, this is like we're setting the bar here. It is absolutely like you said, a lost art in terms of opening a story telling you telling you pretty much everything you need to know about these characters aside from a little bit of backstory out the gate and just drawing you in immediately. I was hooked from that first little bit and then it just cascaded down into everything you talked about with the chair
00:23:47
Speaker
and the characters and the cat and then just the rest of the movie. But yeah, I wanted to just say that opener is one of the best openers that has happened in a while in terms of saying, you don't need to know anything else except for this. Yeah. And that's one of the things I appreciate about the film is like,
00:24:07
Speaker
It's such an appropriate title to call it Sousa Mae because she is the protagonist, but we as the audience, we only know as much as Sousa Mae knows this entire movie. It's not spelled out for you. You don't get this lore explained via narration at the beginning of the movie. You were just along for this ride just like Sousa Mae is.
00:24:27
Speaker
I didn't want to address the chair because that was one of those things from the trailer that stuck out to me. I was like, what is this three-legged chair that's running around on the road? It really just stuck out there. So as soon as I saw the chair, I was like, okay, what's going on with this chair? What is the significance of this chair? And it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the movie when Suta was morphed into this chair and just how they were able to create such high octane action
00:24:55
Speaker
With a chair, he was running, jumping, kicking as a three-legged chair. It was awesome. I did want to address the whole closing of the door. I actually did a little bit of research to see what that was all about. I guess it was actually homage to a Shinto tradition. When they go to build a new building,
00:25:17
Speaker
they pray on the foundation. So that whole prayer that they would say about like, we return these spirits to you and they go to, that's what makes the keyhole appear. And that's how they're able to lock the door. That actually comes from that Shinto tradition over like blessing a construction site and the foundation that will be. So obviously, you know, a very deep movie in all regards in terms of like,
00:25:45
Speaker
the sci-fi time travel elements to the coming of age and the relationships we've seen, not only between Sousa Mae and Souta, but also her aunt, and yeah, and pretty much everybody she comes in contact with. Yeah, and you talk about universe building in such a short amount of time, like you genuinely care about each character and the relationships and how they know each other. It's like we feel like we've known them their whole lives by the time this movie is done.
00:26:13
Speaker
Yeah, you stole the words out of my mouth. It's all of these side characters and added characters like Sarah Zawa does not come in until basically the third act. And he's one of my favorite characters coming out of the film because there was just so much enjoyment and depth that came out of it. And then the karaoke bar, we see them for maybe 15 minutes of the movie. And that karaoke bar scene is just
00:26:38
Speaker
ingrained in my head. There's just, there's a magic to the way that you can create characters that you grasp on to so quickly. In the fact of also, we saw soda in his or suta rather in his human form for
00:26:55
Speaker
10 minutes. And I'm in love with I'm in love with the chair through the entire center section of the movie just how emotive they were able to make this chair like I joked at the end. This is a Beauty and the Beast thing. I like the better is the chair he should have stayed. It was more fun that way. But yeah, it's
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah, you made me fall in love with a chair like I joked with my partner Monica that we should get a three like a chair and take it around Japan with us when we go in the fall and just taking pictures at random stops with a chair and be like we're doing the thing. This chair is going everywhere with us.
00:27:30
Speaker
And your dialogue about loving the chair makes three-legged jokes a lot worse But that chair is also what I was referring to when I said that absolutely loved the sound design I'm so happy that we got experiences. Yes, I'm X because all the going down different materials whether it's the road or the Ferris wheel or it doesn't matter what it was like
00:27:53
Speaker
that echoes and the clicking and the precision of it and like you hear so much in terms of like background noise and everything but just the way that they designed that specifically too was just so much detail it was amazing. Yeah there was something very tactile and satisfying about it so I feel like we've given a ton of love to the chair and I do love the chair but another character I found myself like
00:28:19
Speaker
very, very drawn to was Dijon, the cat that was the keystone that became the cat and going from like, oh, so cute to like, I hate this cat. I was right there with Sousa May the whole way. And then you see how dejected Dijon becomes like, Sousa May doesn't love me anymore. And he gets all scrawny again and beat up and to have, once Sousa May
00:28:42
Speaker
returns her affection for them. They bounce back and then the ultimate sacrifice at the end there to return to the keystone so that Suta can come back. It was an emotional roller coaster. We talked about the Ferris wheel, but that was such a roller coaster of questioning what are these cat god keystones, motivations.
00:29:06
Speaker
just one of the best parts of the movie for me. You did bring up Sarazawa, and I did want to address, I love the character of Sarazawa, but if I had any...
00:29:15
Speaker
criticism against this film, it might be with some of the pacing towards the like last third of the movie. And I think I talked about this on our previous conversation, but I did feel just the way the story was structured, we lost a little bit of momentum there for about 20 to 25 minutes during the road trip sequence. And I still love the road trip sequence, but I did feel like the momentum was like so building up so rapidly. And then it kind of just like slowed down. Okay, we're going to do this like cross country road trip with laughs and
00:29:44
Speaker
I think the standout from that whole sequence was when
00:29:48
Speaker
Sousa Mae and her aunt had that exchange where the black cat, I think, Sin Dijin, I believe that. I would have liked more from Sin Dijin. I wanted to know what the story was there, but just that whole moment of possession where those emotions that she felt about having had her life robbed in terms of being a single attractive woman, but having to take care and become a mother, that was really palpable and gripping stuff.
00:30:18
Speaker
Yeah, as fun as it was listening to Sarah Zawa sing to everyone else's displeasure. I agree that once the once the the black cat came in, it seemed like things were getting a little crammed. Because we started this movie at 930 at night. So it's like, we kind of had those, those phases of like, tired now when it's just gonna pick back up. And
00:30:46
Speaker
It's one of those things where it's like, I wouldn't want to change a single thing about this movie because it was so good, but because you brought it up like, yeah, I could see where the pacing just could have been a little more balanced out.
00:30:56
Speaker
The, before I get to that part, I think Dijen needs to be adopted by Hagan Azuka because their lack of communication is just on par with each other. We just finished our Demon Slayer episode. Yeah, like this movie could have been so much older if Dijen just explained like why she wanted to play to Suzume and what playing with Suzume entailed. And the fact that like, are you a bad cat? Are you not a bad cat? Like what what's
00:31:24
Speaker
What's your game here, Kat? Because it's very confusing. There was never a moment where I felt like this movie was getting predictable because I had no idea what direction it was heading in. And in terms of the road trip stuff, before the car stuff, we got to see a lot in the ferry and in the trains.
00:31:45
Speaker
And even though this was fully animated, like I felt like we as an American audience really got to tour Japan, like while we were watching that, like the fact that she was talking, like we got to see like on the maps on her phone, which her phone has a credible battery life on multiple times.
00:32:06
Speaker
in which place that she was in and the fact that she was so upset that she fell asleep during the time when they were passing Mount Fiji. And I was like, you know what? I get that. Like, I would be upset about that, too. And getting to see these different cities and just a different culture and a different lifestyle and her. We saw this in your name a little bit, too, of just kind of like seeing bigger cities for the first time and the shock factor. And how do I use bullet strands and like just this this small story just becoming so big for somebody was just
00:32:35
Speaker
I felt like a tourist in the moment and really enjoyed her
Cultural Journey and Sound Design in Suzume
00:32:39
Speaker
adventure. She was forced into this, but it was a beautiful thing that you got to experience out of it.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, I did joke. Oh, she plugged her phone in a few times. I will say that was one of the beautiful things about the film was the attention to detail that I noticed little things like, Oh, she's got her phone plugged in. That makes sense. That's gonna like the battery life on the top right. Yeah, you can see the battery life and it was changing and like he was using Spotify to play the music and you know, the car had different little quirks to it that were always there. It was just
00:33:10
Speaker
the movie had so much detail going into it. But um, my one big Yeah, the convertible did work. The one big note, we can't talk about, you know, the subversion of expectations, we can't talk about the sound design without talking about one big thing, and that is the worm.
00:33:27
Speaker
Oh my god, I've got horror notes the first time the worm was on screen and just the deep bellowing pipe organ or I can't even necessarily put my finger on what wood instrument would have made that but it was just so deep and so guttural and so just literally earth moving sounding the way that they designed all of it around it.
00:33:53
Speaker
hats off to the sound design team. But then, you know, it wouldn't be me on a podcast and it wouldn't be this movie if we didn't talk about the music. I believe it's Radwimps is the group that did all of the music. Oh my gosh, like the Sousa May song in and of itself is beautiful. And it's the thing that brought us all to this movie. But the music throughout and the emotional impact that it carried was absolutely beautiful the way that they mixed in all of these different
00:34:21
Speaker
you know, high organ notes with the low ones, but as well as these choirs that they had singing just desperate notes, as though to get out a last breath when we were having those last last ditch scenes in the movie. I just
00:34:37
Speaker
I can't express how if you took that away, this movie would not carry the impact that it did. And knowing that it was one band, one group that basically did everything for this film, that's kind of unheard of to do everything from both soundtrack that you hear in a main theme all the way down to your little notes that you're having during a conversation. That's absolutely astounding that they did this. And I hope they get the recognition they deserve for how incredible it was.
00:35:07
Speaker
As much as I want peaches to get all of the awards, I want Seuss Made To Be A Contender. Yeah, it would be a damn shame if given the level of attention this film is getting in terms of its success and kind of
00:35:28
Speaker
the awareness around it. If it doesn't get any kind of nomination or mention come awards season, I think it would be an absolute shame and travesty. So you heard it here first, Academy. Yeah, hopefully when we cover the Crunchyroll Awards next year, we'll be talking about Susan A a lot. Susan A.
00:35:50
Speaker
God, it was so creepy and so cute. Everything about that cat. I don't know how else to express it. Yeah. Anything else we want to gush about in terms of Makoto Shinkai's Sousa Mei? All right. So you guys have at least seen one movie by him now. So this brings up the question. In comparison,
Comparing Shinkai and Miyazaki's Legacy
00:36:21
Speaker
Is Makoto Shinkai's content better than on par with or an extension of Miyazaki? That's a loaded question. That's a loaded question. I saw somewhere, I can't remember exactly where, where someone described him as the new Miyazaki and
00:36:47
Speaker
That's what I lean into. I think it's an extension. He very much is kind of picking up the thread there in terms of having these coming of age stories with a hint of fantasy and other worldliness. The influence is certainly there, but I think he's leaving his own mark. Okay.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah, I've thoroughly enjoyed, I've seen your name weathering with you and Sousa May at this point, and I kind of watched them. Sousa May was the first one I watched, then I watched your name, and then I watched weathering with you. And the fact that I was able to watch them all in such close proximity, I think just speaks to the level of quality and level of interest that I had. Yeah.
00:37:29
Speaker
I think it I want to say extension, but when I really start getting down to it, I'm just going to say on par with because it starts to feel like comparing apples to oranges after a while. We're in one of the notes that I said at the top is this is taking a very mundane world and flipping on flipping it on its head and showing you the beauty that was always in that world.
00:37:51
Speaker
And I first was exposed to those notes via Miyazaki and all of those Ghibli films because that's what he does so wonderfully.
00:38:01
Speaker
But when I actually boil it down, they're just, it's this diverging path of storytelling and this branching tree. And yes, it may go down to the same roots, but I see them going in all of these different directions with everything that they do. And I could, if someone were to say, oh, this is, you know, Sousa May is my favorite animated film, and someone else comes over here and says, Howl's Moving Castle, both of those are right answers because you're just,
00:38:27
Speaker
it's your preference to the way that the story is told the way that it's delivered. So yeah, I think I do think Miyazaki may have paved the way for us to be okay with this storytelling, because it's still very rare to have this serialized world building, but not world building, I guess, where it's like, everything is flushed out in one go, you don't make a sequel, this is it. And I think without Miyazaki, we may be hesitant to that. But
00:38:56
Speaker
Like you said, Jay Scott, he's leaving his own impact on the actual industry as a whole. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a lot of similarity just with the concepts and the designs and stuff. So I do agree with the note and why it was really important for me to say that extension was one of the options because it seems like this is something that Makoto could have watched and been inspired by.
00:39:23
Speaker
And the reason I wanted to bring it up now is because I've officially only seen two of each director's movies So there's like an interesting point of comparison right now
00:39:36
Speaker
But because I know, Scoots, you've seen multiple of both now. I was curious on like, if you notice the similarities, if it was just things that people talk about, because there's just not that much exposure to specific directors or like what it is. But I think it would have been a crime to just not bring it up at all. Yeah.
00:39:57
Speaker
I'm going to make another comparison and again, like Andrew said, this is like comparing apples to oranges, but as you were kind of breaking it down there, it just came to mind to me. I feel like Miyazaki is Spielberg and Shinkai is George Lucas, where
00:40:13
Speaker
George Lucas is famous for saying the poetry is there. This is poetry. It repeats itself and whatnot. I feel like the themes and tropes in what I've seen from Makoto Shinkai, the motifs are a little bit stronger, but again, he was clearly influenced and inspired by how Miyazaki paved the way. I'll leave it at that.
00:40:38
Speaker
Yeah, you asked a hard hitting question. But I feel like I feel like we got to the root of how we all feel. And I think it's the same. So it has to be at least one listener that was curious about that as well. And if you are that one listener, if you are one of the 200 listeners, if there are more listeners just specifically for this episode, we'd love to hear your thoughts animation deliberation podcast at gmail.com, whether it's your first time or you're a seasoned veteran listening to us. We appreciate you being here.
00:41:03
Speaker
I absolutely love this movie. I'm sad that I can't always watch it in IMAX because even when the credits were rolling, my friends were like, you're ready to go. I'm just like, dude, the song's playing. I've listened to the song every day, every day. I'm not exaggerating every day since I heard it in the trailer. And it is I pride myself on like watching things with good speakers and stuff even at home. So that was one of those things like you really just had to take it in.
00:41:32
Speaker
This is a weird comparison. It's like watching Infinity War and IMAX for the first time. You just gotta enjoy everything there, because having that theater experience, it was just so pristine. This is such a wonderful movie, and it's not even my favorite one by him. All right, well, I think that'll about do it for this episode. So with the call to action for feedback,
00:42:02
Speaker
I mentioned it on the last episode we did, but let's get hashtag animation deliberation trending with all the places that you hit us up via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all of those places. And yeah, please check out PandaVision. It's a part of the Strandepanda network where we are currently covering
00:42:21
Speaker
season four, the final season of Barry on HBO. And also check out what's happening over on Multiverse News, the show where we talk about all the things happening in the industry and movie world. Thank you for tuning in. That's T-double-O-N-I-N. And as always, stay whelmed. And until we have another song to talk about that makes a great movie, Muscle Muscle.
00:42:46
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email AnimationDeliberationPodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at AnimationDelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash spchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.