Wolf Children

Outside Japan it can sometimes feel like we're over-exposed to Studio Ghibli, and it's easy to think that that's where Family Anime starts and ends. But of course, there are other Anime studios, and this film is from Studio Chizu, one of the studios which, based on this and other recent offerings, may well take the crown, just as Pixar shoved aside Disney in Hollywood. This is a beautifully made film, with a very simple story about a woman who brings up two children who can change at will between human and wolf, having been fathered by a man who could do likewise. The woman, Hana, is entirely human, so when the Wolf Father dies, she struggles to raise these two half wild children in her Tokyo apartment. She therefore takes them to the countryside, where her struggles continue, but are more manageable. The second half of the film then focuses on the children themselves as they mature into adolescence and undertake their own struggles - for them its the struggle to find their places as wolf/human hybrids, and discover themselves. So the second half is very much "coming of age" or "rites of passage". The main character is Yuki, the girl wolf, the narrator. She's a terribly cute little girl, and just as cute as a wolf cub. Her little brother Ame is just as cute, but features very slightly less in the story. The mother Hana is a perfect and devoted mother. The whole family set-up is very sweet and endearing, but not overly-sentimental because the characters are very three dimensional and very engaging. The struggles that the three of them go through are nothing like the struggles that we ourselves might face, and are each very different, but I was drawn into those struggles completely. This is definitely a lovely family film to watch with kids, from age 5 and above, but adults can enjoy it on their own too. With Studio Gibli and Hayao Miyazaki we became accustomed to some quite serious themes in films such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and The Wind Rises. This film is not like that at all. It focuses on telling a simple story with engaging characters. It is proper family entertainment. The animations is a little mixed. Most of the nature animation is breath-takingly beautiful, but the animation of the human and animal characters is just plain, simple anime.

Back in September 2013, Hayao Miyazaki - the king of animation cinema - announced that he was going to retire from making anime films, following the international premiere of what is now his swan-song to cinema, THE WIND RISES (2013). The question that everyone now has on their mind is, who will succeed Miyazaki? Well, it seems we might already have one in Mamoru Hosoda. Beginning his career at Toei Animation, Hosoda won well-deserved acclaim and awards for directing two of the best anime movies of the late-2000's, THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME (2006) and SUMMER WARS (2009). Now, Hosoda has made it a triumphant hat-trick with WOLF CHILDREN (2012), a truly beautiful and heartwarming story about two adorable wolf-children Ame & Yuki and the paths they decide to take. The film got a limited release in UK cinemas in October, and has received great reviews. Even hard-to-please critics of the Film Guardian and science-fiction entertainment magazine, Sci-Fi Now, were very impressed with WOLF CHILDREN. Hosoda takes a concept that could have ended up being unintentionally laughable and handled it very well, showing how a person would go to great lengths to look after her children that are half-wolf. Anybody hoping that WOLF CHILDREN has the same action pace of SUMMER WARS will be disappointed. But Hosoda isn't out to make the same story or anything like it. The story takes it's time, yet thankfully doesn't drag on forever or outstays it's welcome. The animation for this film is wonderful. It just goes to show that this is the type of animation that mainstream cinema should return to. I find it very sad that most of the animated films Hollywood makes these days are very unfunny CGI-animated comedies with mostly talking creatures voiced by famous movie stars, but with no interesting story or any heart. Even Pixar seems now to have become a shadow of their glory days. Yet, the reason WOLF CHILDREN works so well is the story and characters. You care for them, whenever it's Hana, Yuki, Ame and the Wolf Man. And if the film doesn't leave you moved to tears, then there's clearly something wrong with you. The film reunited Hosoda with two of his collaborators from his previous masterpieces, screenwriter Satoko Okudera and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (that's right, the same man who worked on NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER [1990-1991] and NEON GENESIS EVANGELION [1995-1996]). WOLF CHILDREN truly is a wonderful film to watch. Most of my family who watched it with me last week also loved it. Recommended for all fans of manga and anime alike. Reviewer: Ben David W

This is one of the greatest, beautiful, heartbreaking and heartwarming Anime films around

Sadly,I wanted more form the film than it delivered.Obviously,in a fantasy,there is no predicting anything but still. I did watch it twice to pick up on the very nice touches of animation.I particularly enjoyed the dust from the girl's collection of 'treasures',when she shows her school friends....,as they run away.for content it 's OK but some of the story left me wanting something a little different,especially how the Father dies.I just can't grasp that and it annoyed me slightly on the second viewing,that the son dressed exactly like his Dad.AND,since we're on the subject,the Mother,Hana,never looked like the picture o the DVD cover. I guess some things ended up on the cutting room floor.I must mention one cultural difference I've noticed over the years of watching Anime',that of rudeness in some of the characters.....,to a Western eye/ear,anyway.You know,abrupt outbursts or unearned short shrift.It makes me feel uncomfortable.Maybe that's the motivation but I still don't like it.I'm thinking of the Grandpa whatshisname during the vegetable planting episode.I wanted more of the Father as his character was very interesting. I did enjoy the scene when the moving crew were on a break and one guy had his legs out the van window...,great stuff. As was the gradually reducing drips from the new house roof,polishing of the floor and the cleaning of the glass. Actually the cleaning of the glass was particularly nice.I guess that was from the Director's upbringing. There's plenty of great scenes with good humour and I wanted some to continue longer but I would rate this as 4.5 stars whereas The girl who leapt through time and Summer wars definitely deserve the full 5 stars. Thinking about it.....,I would've preferred to pay just for the DVD alone and not the Blueray disc as well,as you get both.

We're huge Studio Ghibli fans do this was a new film for us. Very much the Manga style rather than like Totoro or Mononoke but it's a really lovely family film. I think we all cried at one point but it was so nicely done with a great happy ending the 6yo on our house wasn't too shaken by it. I would definitely recommend this to any Ghibli fans looking to branch out.

The 4k steel book came via Amazon Slow, the date of shipping kept changing originally it was February then changed to march. Either way the steel book is awesome worth a buy to get the 4k

Miyazaki has done it, yet again, with another sterling animation. If your a fan of Studio Ghibli or you've seen animation's like Ocean Waves and Only Yesterday, you'll find the artwork familiar to those styles and themes. Without giving any spoilers away and being as cagey as possible, this is a young women's struggle to raise her family on her own and help her children to find their place within the modern world. Sounds pretty generic I guess, but the storyline and its flowing grace is fantastic. I was surprised however, a little towards the end of the movie, how the story played out. It had the overtones of grief and tragedy, but didn't end the way I though it might. A wonderful, compelling story, worthy of being collected and watched over and over again.

This is one of my favourite anime films and it's such a beautiful story that I felt motivated for the first time ever to write an amazon review for it. The service was very quick and this edition of Wolf Children is easily worth the £20 as the sketches that come with it are simply beautiful and the movie looks even better on Blu Ray than it did the first time which with all the great animation and dazzling colours really enhances the beatuy of this amazing movie by a great up and coming director. P.S. The Girl Who Lept Through Time is another of his films which I'd highly recommend if you liked Wolf Children.