LogFAQs > #962121764

18. The Red Turtle

Evillord: 2
Red: 16
Karo: 17
Johnbobb: 20
Ermine: 33
Inviso: 37

Total: 125

Evillord: This dialog-free movie ends up covering such a wide range of subjects, from growing up to death to what it takes to be happy, that it's hard to summarize, but it was definitely more interesting and emotional than most films I've seen. I felt like I came away from it with a new perspective on life.

Red: When this movie started I honestly thought it was going to bore me out of my mind. But once the family is established and we're dealing with their way of life on the island it had me surprisingly hooked. Every character grows and gets their own conclusion. It definitely had a rather slow start and took awhile to really get the characters moving, but once we get to the middle I was susprisingly invested in where it was going. Still not necessarily my thing, but it was far more interesting than I was expecting as it started.

Karo: A minimalistic and dialogue-free story of a man who is marooned on a tropical island and his relationship with a giant sea turtle. I mean like actual relationship as in the turtle transforms into a beautiful woman and makes babies with him. The movie follows this family and their life on the island up until the original castaway grows old and passes away, and Mrs Turtle returns to the sea.
It is equal parts haunting and beautiful in a strange way, and it is very different from any animated movie I have seen before. It is not afflicted with the pretentiousness or lack of structure that plagues a lot of independent animated movies, it is charming in its simplicity and mesmerizing in its depiction of this nameless castaway and the depths of his speechless personage.
In an industry full of frantic hijinks and screaming characters, there are some lessons to be learned here about the value of slowing things down and letting it all sink in, and modern American animation could definitely make use of taking some of these lessons to heart.

Johnbobb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z74hjn5rMuU

Ermine: So that was a movie.

I mean... I get it. I can get why people would be super into this... and these types of movies can really suck me in and get me invested but, this just really didn't, at all.

Lost me as soon as the turtle turned into his new wife and the film never really recovered.

Bleh.

Inviso: I know this isnt ENTIRELY Studio Ghibli, since its half Western-inspired, but it definitely runs afoul of some of the biggest pitfalls Ghibli has to offer. Ghibli is very hit-or-miss, in that when they go the exciting and whimsical route, they can create amazing works of cinema. But when they try to be somewhat grounded in reality, they get kinda wrapped up in that kind of sentimentality. This film is largely silent, save for the occasional Hey!, and outside of the inherent fantasy elements of a turtle becoming a woman, its a very flat story. Its about a guy who gets shipwrecked on a desert island, and winds up living out his life there after escape proves impossible. He kills a sea turtle out of spite, and that turtle turns into a woman, whom he has a child with, before growing and dying. There really isnt a lot of content to this movie, and with the silence, it makes for a very boring watch.