Okja

Okja is definitely a touching movie, but the tone was off, and a lot of the characters were like caricatures. I could never quite get into it.

Okja is a weird movie. It’s about a genetically modified “super pig” that looks like a giant hippo. It gets raised by a little girl in the forest for ten years, and then the company that made it wants it back. The characters are super odd. They’re like caricatures. I didn’t particularly enjoy Tilda’s performance as twin sisters – which by the way, is she typecast into only playing twins now? And Jake was super bizarre as the doctor.

Storks

Storks is mostly insipid and pointless, but it does have a few funny moments.

I had zero interest in seeing Storks. The trailer made it look like Tulip was really annoying. And it turns out, she was. The whole premise of the movie is silly. And it’s just kind of dumb in general. Although for some reason I thought Pigeon Toady was basically the funniest thing ever. Brah. And I just got the joke of his name now that I see how it’s spelled. That makes so much sense.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Miyazaki's movies all seem to match the same theme of "stop fighting and respect nature," and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is no exception. It is visually interesting, and you can't help but like Nausicaä, so I'd lean towards recommending it even though it's not exactly mind-blowing.

I'm pretty sure my college boyfriend liked Nausicaä, but it's been so long since I've thought about it that I could be totally wrong. I wanted to watch My Neighbor Totoro, which I haven't seen yet, but the plot was too simple for my company and they chose Nausicaä instead. It reminded me a lot of Princess Mononoke. I did like Nausicaä more, though. Except for the name. They pronounce it so weird, with an "sh" for the "s." I do like the animation style, although the hats were really distracting and weird.

Nausicaä herself was a cool character. I liked her outfit. You can't *not* like someone who's basically just nice to everyone/everyone's hero. Again the message is super heavy-handed, though. "Stop fighting and try to understand each other." Okay. I guess it's a good thing to tell kids.