Two at NYICFF- Thoughts on the final episodes of MOOMINVALLEY and a non review of GRANDFATHER WAS A NIHONJIN

MY GRANDFATHER IS A NIHONJIN
This is a brief note to say that I am not going to be reviewing MY GRANDFATHER IS A NIHONJIN which played this past weekend at the NYICFF. I can’t fairly comment on how the film because the English dub was incredibly bad. There was no life in the vocal performances, with the accent given to the grandfather being in the territory of old school Hollywood stereotypical. I’m also not certain about the English script which seemed to simplify everything down way too much. I can’t honestly believe that the film script would make things that simplistic. I am told the original version plays much better so I will wait to do a review then.

MOOMINVALLEY
Stretching things out for a final year, NYICFF ran the final three remaining episodes of the British series MOOMINVALLEY.  There are no more episodes to run since the series finished production several years ago and despite attempts to continue the series finally shut down.   Coming from the very start of the series the festival had held off running the episodes because they weren’t as good as all of the later episodes.

The three episodes are sequential with the first episode having Mymble bringing her brood in late winter to crash at the Moomin home until midsummer. The episodes set up most of the characters including the Moomins and Little Mai. There is a variation on the tale that was told in a later episode. It doesn’t play as well as what would follow. The second episode was focused on Snufkin who was on his way to see Moomin Troll and was trying to compose a new Spring song. It’s an okay episode. The final episode has Snufkin arriving at the Moomin home just as Moomin Troll captures a baby dragon which causes a rift between friends.  It's another okay episode, which doesn’t live up to later episodes.