The Red Turtle

<<

Ghibli Reviews

>>

Here we have around the time Ghibli starts to slip a bit. In which particular way, I'm not entirely sure, but here we see Ghibli teamed up with a studio called Wild Bunch, and the following film isn't actually a Ghibli production at all - but more on that with that particular review.

This is the last of the Ghibli collection to earn an Oscar nomination, this time around losing it to 'Zootopia', which was almost certainly the better film of the two. 'The Red Turtle' was something that struck me as so incredibly basic that it could have potentially done better as an animated short.

The basic 100% non-speaking plot involves an unnamed man, getting shipwrecked on an island that is luckily abundantly full of resources. When trying to escape, this big, red turtle keeps getting in his way. For revenge, he just about kills the turtle, but then the turtle turns into a woman, and the rest of the movie is them growing and raising a son together. Yeah, it's probably the strangest of the collection altogether. That is saying a LOT when it comes to Ghibli studios, too.

It's only the second to last film on the list, but I have to find this one kinda near the bottom of things. It's not quite like sitting through something like 'Ocean Waves', as there's still some neat stuff here, but it does remain a bit boring at time, along with a bit of "what the hell did I just watch?" Seriously, I dunno if this turtle-turned-girl is supposed to be some kind of symbolism for loving mother nature or something, but this was one of the more confusing titles on the list for me.

I know this is probably the shortest review I've written yet on a Ghibli film, but there's just nothing for me to talk about here. It's neat that it's a different type of animation like 'Yamadas' or 'Kaguya', and it is a very beautiful film to look at, but all in all I have to say I found this one to be entirely overrated. I guess a lot of it is to portray family in a sort of unique way, but in the end, this one just didn't do much for me. Once again, it's a 3, but on the lower end of it.

3/5

---