Goshu the Cellist (1982)

If Music be the food of.....

Mr Raccoon, Mr Raccoon

http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Gauche_the_Cellist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauche_the_Cellist

http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2007/01/gauche-the-cellist-review.php

http://www.animedream.com/ad/reviews/view/899

Like any other Studio Ghibli fan I am interested in looking at older Ghibli films that are available out there , this seems more important because Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata  do seem to be producing as many animations them they where in the late 80's to early millennium .I don't want to go to to much about Ghibli or the producers because this is information that to can find out about on the Internet or even on the DVD box sets that you buy. But when I glanced at the cover of Goshu the Cellist it reminded me of the movie poster of the modern day movie Departures (2008). Well apart from the animal in the picture that is;

http://asianwiki.com/Departures

The animals that are in Goshu the Cellist remind me of all the animals that have ever been in Ghibli film, Pom Poko has raccoons in the film and in Goshu the Cellist there also is a raccoon that appears. It would seem that Ghibli have reused and improved upon old concepts such as Panda! Go Panda is a clear influence for there later film Totoro. The concept of Goshu the Cellist remind me of the scene in Whisper of the heart when the characters have a sing among but in most Ghibli film there have moment of the films where they reflect each other or a style that reminds the audience that they are watching a Ghibli Product.In the case of Departures, I do not think that the narrative of the film matches the same concept of Goshu the Cellist but what struck me was the imagery of the cello on the poster and this no simply just because there is a cello in the image like in Gostu the cellist but the whole image from colouring to composition is perfectly similar to Isao Takahata 's film.

Gostu the Cellist has a different prospective to the Departures because for one thing Goshu the Cellist is a Ghibli style film so  it looks on  a positive theme and Departure is not a negative movie but it deals with realistic themes through-out, like Death and lose.I was shocked at how long the time was, nearly 6 hours so i quickly looked on Youtube to compare the films further. But Gostu the Cellist follows a very simple narrative which simply is about a man who is learning to play the cello for his local orchestra but is struggling to play as well as anyone else. he goes on a magical journey and is taught to play his instrument by creatures of the forest and successfully learns to play his instrument by the end of the film.

What is interesting about the film is the fact that is about music and this before Studio Ghibli where in business so Joe Hisaishi who produces the Ghibli soundtrack in the most successful film was properly not involved at this time. What is even more ironic is the fact Joe Hisaishi produced a soundtrack for Departures;

It is interesting to see the concept that animal can teach us how to play music but saying that Ghibli always have had element of the nature playing in the background to remind us that the environment around us is important to mankind's existence. There are many Studio Ghibli films that have messages in , like Princess Mononoke where The humans abandon nature and become greedy to the point of almost destroying everything around them. also there is Pom Poko where the wildlife are at threat of being extinction because their habitat is being destroyed , so they choose to fight back but when that fails they are forced to adapt to survive and live as humans. The effects of Goshu's music is that when he plays bad music bad thing happen and when he plays good music gives him the power to heal animal. Basically he effects the environment around him;