Triple anime movie review

I leave for my Gencon 2012 trip today.  I was planning on writing a simple post with pictures of my dearest Synthia with a brief 'See you in a week!'  However, I watched a pretty awesome movie over the weekend, and decided to treat you all with not one, but three (brief) movie reviews!  And for the record, Synthia is my car.

The three films I want to cover are all animated.  They could all be considered 'anime'.  Let's review them in the order that I've watched them.

Spirited Away (2001)

I can't even remember how I got introduced to this film, but I immediately fell in love with the world that it presented and with the characters.  The story follows the adventures of a young girl named Chihiro.  She is on a trip with her family when the stumble upon an alternate dimension that is inhabited by spirits and monsters.  Her parents quickly eat food that was not intended for them and they turn into pigs.  Chihiro then sets out to both survive in the world and rescue her parents.  Her adventures put her in contact with a variety of spirits, monsters, and witches.  It is a beautiful 'coming of age' story about what it means to be courageous.  I would easily give Spirited Away top ratings.  What's even better, is that the movie is pretty family friendly, although it's probably a little too scary for younger children.

Metropolis (2001)

The second movie I want to review is called Metropolis.

Metropolis is a very interesting movie.  It is set in a futuristic setting in which humans and robots coexist.  However, robots are treated as second class citizens and are not allowed in many of the same areas that humans occupy.  There are even groups of humans that are 'anti-robot'.  The film follows Kenichi and his detective uncle as they investigate a mad scientist wanted for organ trafficking.  The plot thickens as they discover a young girl in the mad scientists lab.  And that is all I will share.  The movie is rated PG-13 for violence.  I watched the movie many years ago.  I believe there may be some language and robot nudity as well.

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

This movie was written by the same man who wrote Spirited Away.  I have to say, that I love the man's writing style.  Howl's Moving Castle is about a young woman named Sophie.  Sophie is a hatter and works making hats.  Her life is forever changed when she runs into a mysterious man on her way to her sister's house.  After that, she sets out on a magic charged adventure.  The animation in this movie is beautiful.  I especially enjoyed how the writer chose to represent magic being used by various magicians in the world.  It often was very subtle, but at times it seems like a massive shared hallucination.  Even though I had a hard time following the plot (it was complicated) or knowing what was even going on, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  I'd give it the same rating and recommendations as Spirited Away.

And with that, I will see you all next week!  If I'm not too completely exhausted, I will have some pictures of my adventures of Gencon.  If I am too exhausted, I might post some pictures of my dearest Synthia.