Studio Ghibli is not known for predictability, but My Neighbors the Yamadas certainly stands out, even among the studio’s eclectic catalogue. Best known in the U.S. for his heartbreaking anti-war ode Grave of the Fireflies, director Isao Takahata ventures into radically different territory with My Neighbors the Yamadas, a domestic comedy that veers into the surreal time and again, coming off as an odd combination of The Simpsons, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home and The Honeymooners.

Based on the comic strip by Hisaichi Ishii, the film follows the travails of a “typical” Japanese family, the Yamadas, as they struggle to cope with life’s everyday challenges. The obstacles the family faces are note-perfect in their mundane nature: From teen son Noboru’s awkward dealings with the emotional swings of his first crush and adolescent daughter Nonoko’s accidental abandonment at a shopping mall, to father Takashi’s awkward confrontation with too-loud bikers and mother Matsuko’s efforts to get someone else — anyone else — to do her household chores for her, the everyday situations boast an air of familiarity that immediately wins over the viewer. When the movie veers into surreal metaphor — be it Takashi and Matsuko riding a bobsled in the “race of life” or the family “dancing on air” to illustrate their love for each other — it’s hard not to smile at the imagination on display.

Of all the Disney-released Ghibli films, My Neighbors the Yamadas benefits from quite possibly the most spot-on voice casting to date, and that’s saying something, considering the excellent dubbing job Disney has managed on the other films. To my astonishment, James Belushi is inspired as Takashi, the long-suffering breadwinner who is neither as successful nor as manly as he’d like his family to believe. Channeling all the best bits of Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden, Belushi infuses Takashi alternately with outrageous bluster and haunting vulnerability. Molly Shannon does good work as the somewhat lazy and self-centered Matsuko, while Daryl Sabra and Liliana Mumy both bring a natural and easygoing charm to their characters. It is Tress MacNeille, however, who practically steals the show, portraying the abrasive grandmother Shige as a curmudgeon who is not above playing the percieved infirmities of age to her own advantage. Every scene she’s in is a treat.

But — and there’s always a “but” — despite its many charms, My Neighbors the Yamadas doesn’t hold together well as a feature film. The movie has no plot, instead consisting of a wide assortment of vignettes showcasing different events in the family’s life. Some are connected, but most aren’t. Most of the vignettes lack even a narrative finale, following a family member for minutes at a time before refocusing on a different family member. As an attempt to emulate the unscripted timelines of “real life” it’s an admirable effort, but viewers accustomed to traditional plot structure may find it disconcerting. The humor, too, is subdued. The movie is wry and observant most of the time, the jokes amusing rather than hilarious, with the overall tone contemplative and poignant. One scene, in which Takashi and Matsuko’s spousal battle over the television remote escalates into a pseudo-martial arts battle royal is brilliant in its seamless integration of metaphor, observation and hilarity, but most of the rest of the movie is content to simply smile and offer a knowing nod at the screen.

The animation is also distracting at times. Rendered in a flat style to emulate the two-dimensional comic strip origins, the art on Yamadas is simple but effective. I found myself liking the approach more and more as the film wore on. Several times throughout the course of the movie, however, the animation abruptly changed, taking on additional depth, detail and dimensions. Granted, these were usually — not always, but usually — during pivotal moments, such as the aforementioned confrontation with the bikers. If the intent was to emphasize the gravity of the scenes by giving the animation more weight, I’m afraid the stylistic trick misfired. I saw it as merely a betrayal of the established world these characters inhabit.

DVDetails

My Neighbors the Yamadas, along with Pom Poko, marks the first of the Disney releases from Ghibli that don’t come as a two-disc set. And frankly, that’s an improvement. On previous releases, the second disc was pretty much a space filler, featuring only the movie’s storyboards, usually in a format that was awkward to navigate. With these new releases, the storyboards are now included on the same disc as the film, and offered in a vertical index that is much more user-friendly.

The trade-off, unfortunately, is that the individual storyboard panels are much reduced in size. For Yamadas this isn’t a big deal, but for future releases of Hayao Miyazaki’s films — in which Miyazaki illustrates the storyboards himself — this could cause some grumblings. The “Behind the Microphone” featurette is standard fare for these releases, with intercut interviews of the voice talent in the recording studio. The inclusion of the original Japanese trailers and teasers for this movie proves to be unexpectedly enlightening, however. When the trailer opens with an apology that production on the film has fallen far behind schedule, but the studio hopes to have it finished in time for the release date, it leaves no doubt that we’re not in Hollywood anymore. At a time when studios push movies back an entire year with no explanation (I’m looking at you, Miramax: Brothers Grimm ring any bells?) to see the obvious craftsmanship and sense of ownership in such a project is foreign — in both the literal and figurative sense.

My Neighbors the Yamadas is pleasant and charming, never too edgy, never too saccharine. Ultimately, it would probably work far better as a television series, but for gentle, insightful familial humor, you could do a lot worse.

The Movie Itself: 6 out of 10
The DVD Features: 6 out of 10