From Up On Poppy Hill

From facebook:

We got our own copy of From Up On Poppy Hill a couple of days ago. A very sweet movie. Not directed by Hayao Miyazaki, but he was involved in the planning and co-wrote the script.

One of my faceboook colleagues commented that the backgrounds were fabulous, as they always are in Studio Ghibli movies. I replied:

It isn't just a question of backgrounds. The settings in Ghibli movies surround the characters and become characters themselves. I love the bugs and fishes and flowers, like Japanese scrolls. The skyscapes are amazing. The cityscapes are equally amazing. The mining town in Castle in the Sky. The port city in Kiki's Delivery Service. Yokohama in Poppy Hill. Miyazaki loves planes, of course, but there are also trains and ships and buses, especially the cat bus. And I love the importance of work and working people.

Kiki is about getting a job. So is Spirited Away.

Poppy Hill is about fixing up an old house. There is more scrubbing in a single Ghibli movie than in all of Disney, except maybe Cinderella.