The Wind Rises (2013) Review

           The Wind Rises (2013) is the last animated movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki before he retired. This is a fictionalized biopic of Jiro Horikoshi where we see him dreaming about making airplanes as a young kid, then it jumps to him as an adult in a university realizing his dream designing airplanes during World War II. There's also a romance taking place during the second half of the movie.
           The thing that really blew my mind away while watching this was the animation. It was all so beautifully hand drawn. Everything in the art has a great attention to detail from the colors to the shapes. It's extremely dreamlike to the eye. "The Wind Rises" looks really damn good.
           Compared to Miyazaki's other work, this is more realistic. What this movie does so well in addition to the art, was how it captures someone as a child who grows older having a dream, maintaining a dream, and always envisioning it when going about daily life. I can relate to this because, for a long time, and still to this day, I'm envisioning a lot of creative ideas for potential future movies. And when we see this character actually living his dream designing airplanes and seeing how things could be included in these airplane designs, I felt very rewarded during the experience.

            Like I said, there's a romance later in the movie that I thought was all so beautifully handled and very sweet. Even though this was all animated, I felt like I was watching that I could potentially meet in real life. I'm serious. They felt very real, and they grew on me very dearly. This is the type of movie that would be enjoyed by kids and adults, but the sort of thing that I think adults would appreciate a whole lot more. The very type where if you enjoyed watching it as a kid, and you discover the themes that are in this movie if you decided to continue watching it as you grow older.                                                                                        

"The Wind Rises" is a truly great sendoff to a great animated director, and after seeing this, I really want to get around to watching all of his previous work. It was a truly magical experience for me. I can't recommend it enough if you love animation.
           I give "The Wind Rises" directed by Hayao Miyazaki a 10 out of 10.