Modest Heroes

A compilation of three short films. Maybe it's just because it was the one I enjoyed the least, but Kanino and Kanini, about two kids who are some sort of amphibious little people trying to find their father after he was carried downstream in a storm, felt longer than the other two. Not by a lot - like it was 20 minutes and the others were closer to 13-14 a piece, but it definitely dragged. Maybe because none of the characters say anything except each other's name. Like we're in bizarro Pokemon or something.

The other two, The World's Not Gonna Lose and Invisible were both more interesting to me. The first one is about a boy who is allergic to eggs, and the problems that causes him and his mother. Lot of scenes of her having to rush off from work because he got exposed at a friend's birthday party or whatever. And the kid seriously hates eggs in general. At one point he refused to do a math problem because it involved eggs. Just scribbled all over it instead. I guess I can see that response, given how prevalent eggs are as an ingredient in things.

The animation style is very standard for Studio Ghibli most of the time, but whenever he has an allergic reaction, the colors get thicker, more smeared. Everything looks fragile and jittery somehow. Like things are reverting to a sketch, but with color rather than pencil linework. It's a nifty approach, draws the audience's attention because it's a shift.

Invisible is about a guy who is, you know, invisible. Even though he wears clothes and can speak, no one seems to notice or react to him. Even if he hands them a pen, the person's eyes just pass them over. He's practically immaterial actually. He has to keep a metal extinguisher slung over his shoulder or he'll float into the sky. There's a part where that almost happens and I thought he was going to eventually stop struggling and just let himself float away, and then find something wherever he ends up. That's not how it went. Film seemed to be saying more that he'd allowed himself to be a ghost, hadn't tried to do anything to really live or be noticed. I don't know about that.

It's definitely got the bleakest color scheme of the three, all overcast skies and dull modern settings. His moped is this dull almost primer grey-blue. Clothes are dull, buildings are dull. Not a bright, hopeful world. The World's Not Gonna Lose is set in modern urban setting too, but even with all the problems Shun faces, the colors for his surroundings stay bright and sunny.