The Wind Rises (2013)

 Hi fellow animation fans, welcome to my review of The Wind Rises.

Synopsis: Based very loosely on the early years of Japanese aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi from the time he was a young boy to when he designs and completes the Model Zero fighter airplane. From a young age Jiro (Hideaki Anno) has a dream of flying airplanes, but due to his need for glasses he sets his sights on becoming an aeronautical engineer, which it turns out that he is a bit of a prodigy. He is quickly employed by Mitsubishi motors to work on designing aircraft for the military, along his journey he finds inspiration and love in surprising places.

The Good:

* The animation is of course what you would expect from Studio Ghibli, beautifully designed characters, imaginative machines and stunning hand drawn scenery. 

* The sounds in the movie are a standout, instead of the usual recordings of actual planes or trains the sounds for these are made by human voices and it just works amazingly, especially during the train ride during the Tokyo earthquake.

* Like much of Miyazaki's work the story is open to interpretation, I liked to think the part with his wife and the ending dream was an analogy about war being a horrific disease, but others may see it a different way. 

* The love story was done in a tender and beautiful way that will definitely provoke emotions, I think this is a good thing even if they aren't always happy emotions.

The Bad:

* History buffs probably won't like how much creative license was used.

* Some of the subject matter may distress some viewers.

                         IMDB 7.8/10            Rotten Tomatoes 88%           Me 9/10 

Jiro presenting his design ideas to his team.