Princess Arete

I enjoyed the film, although in many ways it's a dissatisfying story. Essentially, it's about an under-appreciated woman in a bad marriage told as a fairy tale. Princess Arete is raised in a high tower (pedestal), and her father exploits her suitors by making them scour the earth for treasure. She meets two of them, but one is a braggart and both are liars. She's eventually married off to a wizard who is really nothing more than a lazy layabout. He sits around with his servant, Grovel, doing nothing. (All he needs is beer and a remote.) He locks the Princess away, but her strength and stoicism drive him crazy, and he banishes her. It turns out he's nothing but a self-loathing brat with virtually no power who pines for the glory days when wizards ruled the world. (Think former high school football star.) The resourceful Princess leaves him to pursue her own adventures. I liked it, but it didn't cover a lot of new ground. Think of the movie as a metaphorical retelling of "Private Benjamin".

Many reviews are "magical" or whimsical. They're thinking of the 2010 film Secrete World of Arrietty. This is, sadly, Arete, a boring slogfest which never once piqued my interest.

I'm not saying I dozed off during this movie ... but I kinda did. This movie made me long for the magical whimsy of a Ghibli movie instead of 90 minutes of nothing happening at all.

Art: The art style for the backgrounds was actually fairly rich for a gray and brown world with no interesting elements in it I feel bad that these animators were put on such a dull project. But the character animations were brutally simplified.

Characters: 1-demensiinal and dull. Nothing to see here.

I won't spoil the story but there wasn't enough for me to remember or care so ...

Basically, there are a few good elements but those are drowned in the cacophony of "blah". Pass on this movie.

We wanted to watch "The Secret World of Arietty" (2010). Somehow this was included in a "Studio Ghibli" set. This is NOT! This is a 2001 movie called "Princess Arete". As previous reviews have stated, the animation is very basic (not at all like the Miyazaki films like Ponyo, Kiki's Delivery Service, etc...) and the story, if you can call it that, drags on and doesn't really do anything to draw the viewer in and make them care about the characters. We started fast forwarding through it after 40 minutes, hoping to see some action and something to engage us. We were severely disappointed. I finally looked it up and discovered we were not watching the movie we had intended to watch. I think some of the reviews who brag about how amazing it is are really reviews for Arietty, not this movie.

I really, really wanted to like this movie. And don't get me wrong, I understood the themes of the story, and I actually do like slow- paced animated movies. But Princess Arete was to slow!

In the first hour of this movie nothing at all happens. It only takes place in a handful of boring a dull settings that don't really immerse you in the world. And it seems like all the characters do nothing but sit around and talk about things. The animation is good, but very uninspired, it doesn't take risks, or do anything spectacular. And besides, animation is the pinnacle of visual storytelling, and its the best way to express imaginative and to tell immersive stories. When I see an animated movie that has such a dull atmosphere, I feel sorry for the people who worked on it.

Now the movie is not all bad. Like I said earlier, I did understand the theme of isolation and oppression, and at the very least the last twenty minutes actually had something happening, but its not enough to make up for the ninety minutes of nothing that came before it. I'm sure some people would like this movie, but I don't think I could recommend it to anyone.

Japanese Animation in recent years saw the rise of younger directors such as Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, 2016) or Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf Children, 2012).

If you like European "high-blow" movie, Katabuchi is for you. You will soon find that his understanding of classical movies and literature is extraordinary.

Princess Arete is his first full-length movie and has many good points. However, the slow development of the story might bore the viewers.

My Suggestion is to watch his more recent Mai Mai Miracle (2009) or In This Corner of the World (2016) first, since these movies are more entertaining. If you like these movies and want to know more about Katabuchi, you will enjoy this one.