MY NEIGHBOURS THE YAMADAS (1999)
Directed by Isao Takahata
Starring: Toru Masuoka, Arata Furuta (voices)
Genre: Anime
Running Time: 104mins

Rating:

My Neighbours The Yamadas is a series of comical events that befalls a family unit. Sifting through life's lessons each sequence focuses on the many different characters that inhabit the Yamada's household as relationships are strained only to snap back together in solidarity. My Neighbours The Yamada's is a lovingly made snapshot of family life.

Isao Takahata's My Neighbours The Yamada's is a beautiful, little film. Choosing to step away from the incredibly detailed backgrounds of Ghibli's previous outings, Yamada's instead tells its story with sparse backgrounds and a colour scheme chosen to represent a moving piece of watercolour artwork.

With simple strokes and minimum background detail it would be wrong to assume that Yamada's is an inferior release in Studio Ghibli's canon of work, in fact the concept design for Yamada's makes it all the more charming and involving as we follow brief snippets from the life of this everyday family bestowing upon us many of life's lessons and observations in a very humorous series of vignettes. What we get with Yamada's is a film that feels like a very personal passing down of wisdom and experience.

An insight into the inner-workings of a functional, and at times dysfunctional, family unit each character is presented warts and all. With as many flaws as commendations, we are in no doubt that it is the harmonious nature in which their personalities interconnect that is the substance that binds them. There is dryness to the humour in Yamada's that could pose problems, particularly for younger western audiences. However, it is so well meaning that, while its structure (much like a collection of comic book serials) is sporadic, it carries enough charm to smooth over the cracks.

My Neighbours The Yamada's is a light-hearted romp with only the briefest dip into serious themes; Takahata's handling of the threat of motorbike gangs on Tokyo's suburbanites is reflected with a dramatic shift in animation style that is stark, effective and deeply atmospheric yet without ever feeling out of place.

Overall, there is little to dislike about My Neighbours The Yamada's, pure and simple enjoyment it's infectious, touching, surreal, and familiar all at the same time. The characters are richly drawn and choc-full of eccentricities. Come the grand musical finale it would take the most cynical of viewers to not be wearing a big cheesy grin. A celebration of family values without any of the usual sugarcoating sentimentality Yamada's is a much-overlooked film that cements Takahata as the subtlety to Miyazaki's flamboyancy.

Both equally masterful at presenting their worlds, Studio Ghibli would simply not be the same without the other.

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