Modest Heroes - Movie Review

Modest Heroes is the second film out of Studio Ponic, who made last year's Mary and the Witch's Flower, and this film is an anthology. It has three animated short films. All three of them feature stories of someone who does something heroic, and it's not necessarily about the heroic deed, but it's about their lives, and then at some point they're called to do something heroic, and they decide to step up and do it. The first is called Kanini and Kanino, and it's about two siblings who live underwater, and while their mother goes away to give birth, their father and them get swept away in this stream, and they have a tiny little adventure involving this really big fish they're afraid of. The second is called Life Ain't Gonna Lose, and it's about a mother trying to raise a boy who has a very severe egg allergy, and all of the problems that come with that. And the very last one's called Invisible, and it's about someone who is invisible. But you could take it metaphorically, or you could take it literally, and I have things to say about that in particular. So I was very curious about the production of this, because usually anime short films are very uncommon, especially with distribution. Even the great ones from Studio Ghibli play only at the Ghibli Museum usually, and so it's really hard to see those even. There's plenty I'd love to see, but I just don't have access to them. This is an attempt from Studio Panic to support people who want to make a short anime film, which I think is great. I was sent a press release from GKids that had an interview with people who worked at Studio Panic, and they talked about how after Marrying the Witch's Flower, they were just really exhausted. They were tired. So much work went into something as hand-drawn like that. Not a perfect anime film, and not one of my favorites, but visually stunning for sure. All that being said, they were like, we want to make another film, but that's going to take a long time for us to get going again, and we need kind of a break. But the idea of making short anime films could spread the work out a little bit and allow them to make an anthology, which is now becoming the Studio Panic Short Film Theater. And this is marketed as the first volume, and so hopefully we'll get more anthologies that have other short films from anime directors and writers, because I really love the idea of supporting that form of filmmaking, because we don't usually get a lot of that. And I think short films are something that should be supported a lot more, especially animated short films. So the first short is from the director of When Marnie Was There, which is one of my favorite Studio Ghibli films of recent years. And while this film feels kind of inconsequential, I did really like the way it looked. It was beautifully drawn and animated, but it didn't really have much weight to it. The imagery was gorgeous, and they did a good job of making something that to most people isn't that frightening, rather scary, this fish that's after them. To us, the fish means nothing, but seeing it from their perspective, it really, it really was amazing. The second film, With the Mother and the Son with the Egg Allergy, I like the animation for this even more. One of the things I can definitely say is that with each film, the animation got better, I thought. The first movie is a lot more traditional, that Studio Ghibli look. The second one has a little bit more of a painted feel to it also. This one I liked in particular though, because as a short, it's able to take moments that most films would treat as small and make them a lot grander. But the third one, Invisible, was easily my favorite. This is stunning, and I love the idea behind it too. Someone who is wearing clothes, you can see him put on his tie, his glasses, and he's at work, and he's typing, but you don't see his fingers, you just see the keys on the keyboard moving up and down. People don't notice him, but he apparently has a job, he has a place to live, so in some way he obtained these things, which is why I like the idea of this short perhaps just being a metaphor for being really lonely, and feeling like no one notices you, and literally feeling invisible. But this film takes it and puts it in a way that creates such a feeling of isolation. There's one incredible sequence that actually gave me chills, where he feels like he is being pulled off the earth, like gravity is suddenly not affecting him anymore, and he's just lifting off into the sky, floating away, and nobody even notices. This however though, is a very short movie. It's already just three short films, and even then it's not even a full hour, and there's credits in between each one. What makes this even more unfortunate is that the great Isao Takahata was originally going to direct a fourth short that would have been included in this anthology, but he passed away. So that's really sad, but it could have been a lot longer, it could have been you know, a little bit more impactful, had a little bit more staying power, but I think the reason I really want to support this movie is purely the concept of Studio Ponic lifting up short form filmmaking, especially in animation, and giving it a venue, and giving it distribution. This is really, really good. If this movie makes enough money, if enough people go and see it, hopefully we could have a small little franchise of anime short film anthologies, which is just a whole unique, new thing that we could appreciate. I can never have enough anime, and so naturally I'm excited about that possibility. The biggest issue with the movie really is its length. It can feel very forgettable because it's just three short films, and they're just, they're gone. It's done, and then okay, well I appreciated that, but what did that really tell me? I think I'm more excited about what this could bring in the future if it does well enough than what this is, although I definitely enjoyed myself watching it, and each one had its charms, and each one was unique enough to recommend. I'm going to give Modest Heroes a B. Guys, thank you so much, as always, for watching. This week is going to be fun. I have Glass and the Dragon Ball Super movie. I thought about seeing replicas, but I think I have something else to do, so I think I just decided to skip that one. I do want to make my most overlooked and underrated movies of 2018, so I'm going to be working on that as well. Guys, thank you so much once again, and if you like this, you can click right here and get Stuckmanized.