71
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFrom Up on Poppy Hill is frankly stunning, as beautiful a hand-drawn animated feature as you are likely to see. It's a time-machine dream of a not-so-distant past, a sweet and honestly sentimental story that also represents a collaboration between the greatest of Japanese animators and his up-and-coming son.
- 83The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayIt’s all lovely and sweet, and while this story might’ve been just as engaging in live action, Miyazaki’s animation does clear away the extraneous detail, re-creating the world of 50 years ago and instilling it with the poignancy of a family snapshot.
- 80Time OutTime OutFrom Up on Poppy Hill — cowritten by Miyazaki, and directed by his son Goro — shows a different side of the Japanese animation house, one that finds equal wonder in comparatively mundane affairs.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceThis film's gentle storytelling manages to extract the emotional payoffs of melodrama without ruining one's suspension of disbelief.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThis movie...is a lovely example of the strong realist tendency in Japanese animation. Its visual magic lies in painterly compositions of foliage, clouds, architecture and water, and its emotional impact comes from the way everyday life is washed in the colors of memory.
- 75New York PostFarran Smith NehmeNew York PostFarran Smith NehmeIt’s a film heavily dependent on tone and atmosphere for its charm, the budding relationship shown through things like a lovely twilight bike ride down a hill to the shops below.
- 65NPRScott TobiasNPRScott TobiasIt's the warm tenor of the film that ultimately rescues it.
- 63McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMcClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreIt’s a lovely film, a sentimental parable that carefully recreates a post-war Japan obsessed with obliterating its past.
- 60New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierEven with no wood sprites, witches or spells, there’s plenty of magic in this coming-of-age charmer.
- 50Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe story arc is somewhat facile, and its lesson about preserving history instead of demolishing it to make way for new, shiny things is too obvious.