I really wanted to like it...

Rating: 3/10 (28 April 2020)

I love a lot of Studio Ghibli movies. One of my all time favourite movies I s Laputa. Spirited Away is also another excellent movie, as is Kiki and yes, I am a 40 year male. But I like nice stories and Kiki was that, a nice story.
Everyone raves about this movie and maybe that was the problem, maybe my expectations where too high. I have seen a number of Studio Ghibli movies and had enjoyed most of them (except Tales of Earthsea). But I'm sorry, but this movie sits with that one, at the bottom. The story dragged on and on and really, none of the characters where really likeable. It was way more violent than I was expecting too with severed limbs and decapitations etc.
It's probably the whole underlying environmental fluff that made me dislike it so much. The "anti-human" tone was annoying. I think I also got annoyed with the back and forth of, this person is bad, these wolves are bad, now everyone is good and now they are bad again. Pick a lane.
Anyway, I'm obviously in the minority in my view of this movie. Like I said, love a lot of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki movies. This one, certainly isn't one of them. Do yourself a favour and watch Laputa, Castle in the sky or Spirited Away. Much much much better movies.