The Tale Of Princess Kaguya

So guys, going back to reviewing the Studio Ghibli movies, we're onto the second last one in this series and another one that's pretty interesting for me personally, The Tale Of Princess Kaguya. When I first saw it, I really liked it and even put it in my top 10 favourite Ghibli movies, but recently, again, like the others, I rewatched it and I was surprised to find my opinion stayed the same. I say that because when rewatching some of these other ones, I usually liked the films more or less when I saw them the second time, but, here, I felt it was about the same as when I first saw it and that's that I really liked it, but I do have some problems with it. But, first, let's get to the story. In Japan, a bamboo cutter is cutting down some trees when he finds a tiny, tiny girl inside of the bamboo trees and he's convinced she's a princess and so the man and his wife take her in as their daughter. She begins to get older really quickly and makes friends with the kids around the area. That is until one day when the dad decides to move into a palace far away so she can really be treated like a princess. At first, she's excited and thinks it'll be fun, but, after a while, she begins to hate it and feels like everything is wrong. The mother seems to want to help her, but the dad is completely obsessed with having life be this way and training her to be a real princess. She also gets the name Kaguya and all sorts of things happen where she begins hating her role as a princess more and more. So, yeah, a lot of this does sound somewhat kinda standard, and a bit of it does feel that way, but, I think a lot of what they do in the start and end is really great stuff. I love watching Kaguya make friends in the village she grows up in and they have a likeable connection and they play with it at different points throughout the movie. Though, I will say, when they leave their home and start the stuff in the palace, that's when things slow down considerably and not in the usual really great way like a lot of other Ghibli movies. For one, I find it weird how they even managed to get the palace in the first place considering the parents aren't royalty. I know they kinda explain it when the dad finds the gold in the bamboo, but it's still kinda weird. But, anyway, other things feel like they go on too long too, like when the dad has that party and when Kaguya is being taught all these different lessons and things like that. I think the worst of them is when Kaguya is forced to pick a husband for herself but she doesn't want to so she makes the princes who came look for some tree that's supposed to be impossible to find and that goes on for a long time too, at least almost a half hour. Also, just a quick sidenote, I don't know what they were going for with the dad. Maybe they were trying to make him likeable or unlikeable, but I really hated him. He just seemed like an egocentric idiot who just seemed to care about his own image and not caring about Kaguya's opinion and I really hated him. So, yeah, weird things like that really stuck out to me as nitpicks. But, the rest of  the film does a nice job making it really likeable. Like I said, I really like the opening showing Kaguya having fun with her friends and what they all do together and how we end up seeing them again near the end. Speaking of, the ending is also pretty bittersweet where we see that Kaguya is actually from the moon and so her people from the moon come to take her back and it's pretty sad seeing her leave, especially since they make it clear she's gonna forget everything that happened to her when she does. I also especially liked the connection between Kaguya and the mom because they felt like they had a real and nice relationship. The main thing the film has going for it though is the animation style. I really like how this film looked. It looks like some of those chinese watercolour paintings and how they keep that up for the whole film makes it really gorgeous, especially the scene where Kaguya gets upset at the party and dreams about running away and how they do that is really cool. I don't think this is the best looking Ghibli movie, but it's one of the most unique looking ones. I also liked how this is one of those princess stories where you feel the frustrations of what she's going through and a lot of it does feel very real and relatable. So, I'm kinda torn on this film a little because it has some of the best stuff in any of the Studio Ghibli movies, but it also has some of the worst examples of a slow moving Ghibli movie where I don't think it always works like a lot of the others. However, I will say, I think a lot of what helped it for me personally was the voice acting. I'm sure I would have liked this fine if I saw it in Japanese, but I really, really loved the English voice acting here, especially Chloe Grace Moretz as Kaguya herself. I think she's honestly the best part about the movie because her voice fits Kaguya absolutely perfectly and I don't think anyone could have done her better. Again, I just really do believe her performance elevates the movie so much. And the others like James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss and Lucy Liu are really great too. So, yeah, like I said, I think this is an interesting film for me because, while I think a lot of the good things in this helps make this one of my favourite Ghibli movies, I also don't think this is one of the ones I'd want to watch that many times. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's how I feel. Still though, this is a really good film and I would highly recommend it if you've never seen it just to see all the good stuff I listed. So, guys, that's my review of The Tale Of Princess Kaguya. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.