There were a number of truly excellent films at this year's Fantastic Fest, and I'm only one little writer. We've already reviewed a number of excellent works from Austin already, but we don't have the time or space to give all of them the ample credit that they deserve. So we've brought to you a selection of capsule reviews of some of the titles we saw at the Fest this year- the good, the bad, and the anime -- all in 300-or-so words or less.
I’m really glad to report that the first film from Studio Ponoc, a Studio Ghibli spin-off run by producer Yoshiaki Nishimura and staffed with talent like director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, is a wonderful little film. Adapted from Mary Stewart’s The Little Broom, this anime feature tells the story of a young woman, new in her town and slightly awkward, who discovers a flower that temporarily grants her the powers of a witch. Using a magic broomstick she finds nearby, she’s whisked off with her familiar, an adorably grumpy little cat, to a magical school in the sky where witches and wizards learn how to control their powers. The only problem? They magically transform any and all trespassers, and the flower’s power slowly fades over the course of the day.
It’s a fun little wonder, full of character and life, and it only really falls short when held up next to the Miyazaki classics (which is absolutely unfair on my part). Still, Ghibli’s luscious art design has been preserved faithfully, and as such, the film is a wonder to watch and its frames are easy to get lost in, especially when a bevy of oddly-shaped animals show up later on in the film.
The blight inflicted on those animals by the villains here form the movie’s most obvious moral — that careless experimentation on our furry and feathered friends is inherently evil — and it’s pulled off well enough that it never feels preachy or cheap. The same empathetic touch that Yonebayashi brought to works like When Marnie Was There feels present, even in the heightened surroundings, but never as glib as it did in Arrietty (though that did have its ample charms). It’s wonderful family viewing, something you really can’t say about most Fantastic Fest programming, and a good sign of things to come from the still-emerging studio.
