Film review: When Marnie Was There - beautiful 2D animation
This is the first Studio Ghibli title produced without company co-founders Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, but it retains some of the hallmarks of the highly respected animators.
Voiced by: Kasumi Arimura, Sara Takatsuki (Japanese version)
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Category: I (Japanese and Cantonese versions)
This is the first Studio Ghibli title produced without company co-founders Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, but it retains some of the hallmarks of the highly respected animators.
Hiromasa Yonebayashi — who made his directorial debut with 2010's The Secret World of Arrietty— follows in the footsteps of Miyazaki (Howl's Moving Castle) in adapting a book by a female English author. In this case it is Joan G. Robinson's young adult novel about two lonely girls who become friends in a rural idyll where one of them has been sent to recuperate after suffering an asthma attack.
Anna (Kasumi Arimura) is a 12-year-old orphan with an artistic bent and low self-esteem. She feels that her foster mother is only nice to her because she is paid to be, and sees her being sent to the city of Kushiro ("where the air is clean") as a from of exile rather than a summer respite.
Slowly but surely, however, the Hokkaido seaside town wins her over. And it's there that Anna meets Marnie (Sara Takatsuki), the blonde-haired resident of the mysterious Marsh House who helps to bring the sensitive soul out of her shell.
