Summary
A high-concept fantasy that’s all momentum will undoubtedly appeal to the younger members of the audience, even if the overall narrative falls short for broader crowds.
It’s very easy to describe something as ‘Ghibli-esque’ when dealing with Japanese animation – so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. After all, while the occasionally dormant powerhouse doesn’t have a monopoly on whimsy, they’ve certainly done it better than most over the last few decades.
Based on the 2016 children’s picture book by Akihiro Nishino, POUPELLE OF CHIMNEY TOWN (映画 えんとつ町のプペル) is a high concept piece that starts with an intriguing premise. In a city full of chimneys that has never seen the sky, the stars are something of legend. Young Lubicchi (voiced by Mana Ashida) is, like his father before him, the last of the true believers. After an encounter with Poupelle (Masataka Kubota), a person made of trash who comes to life on Halloween night, he sets out to prove the existence of the true sky.
What’s immediately striking about POUPELLE is the genuinely dazzling hybrid animation. We are introduced to the town in a Halloween dance sequence that bears more than a passing resemblance to The Nightmare Before Christmas. As the film progresses, visual cues are taken from side-scrolling games, and there’s a wicked mine cart chase that feels like a POV roller coaster. (You can get a sense of the animation from the opening sequence, released in its entirety online and embedded below).
Yet as a narrative, it never really gets beyond the simple setup. A series of events and encounters with colourful personalities really only serve to highlight the gap between Lubicchi’s optimism and the fatalism of the townsfolk. As such. there’s a little sense of ‘wash-rinse-repeat’ to the whole affair. The final act also lets it down a little, and it’s arguably a tad overlong, focusing more on the quirkiness of characters than any story progression.
Poupelle is a great example of this, constantly played as a buffoon to emphasise his innocence in relation to the cynical adults. Still, unquestioning younger audiences are bound to enjoy this, which the film seems to be banking on, although there are a few minor scary parts in there as well. Indeed, the concept of a two lonely boys finding each other and becoming instant friends is classic wish-fulfilment stuff.
POUPELLE OF CHIMNEY TOWN competed at the 44th Japan Academy Film Prize, against the stiff competition of franchise entries for Doraemon and Violet Evergarden, but ultimately lost to Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train for Animation of the Year prize. Issues aside, it’s a film that will unquestionably age better than the initial view and no doubt mark a new branch in director Yusuke Hirota’s already impressive filmography.
2020 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Yusuke Hirota | WRITER: Akihiro Nishino | CAST: Masataka Kubota, Mana Ashida, Shinosuke Tatekawa, Eiko Koike | DISTRIBUTOR: Toho, Yoshimoto Kogyo, International Film Festival Rotterdam | RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 2-6 June 2021 (IFFR)
