My Neighbors the Yamadas

Based on a wildly popular Japanese comic strip, master animator Isao Takahata directs this loosely structured work about that wacky household, the Yamadas. The family consists of laid-back, rice cracker-addicted mother Matsuko; the bland businessman father Takashi, who has illusions of machismo; the fearless, acid-tongued grandmother Shige; the slacker teenaged son Noboru; the younger sister Nonoko, who has a freakishly voracious appetite; and Pochi, the misanthropic family dog. During the ...