Gauche the Cellist

Goshu, a young Cellist, is fond of Beethoven, but isn't good enough to please his comrades...

There's only 10 days left before the great concert, and he still isn't ready.... working hard at home, he's disturbed, every evening, by animals, who will help him to learn how to play music with true feelings.

It's like a faerie tale, ideal for children, and if anyone thought classical music was only useful for adds, he should go and see this film!!

I just watched this film the other night with a bunch of other college aged students. We all had a blast. This is a great film for kids to watch as it contains only a tiny bit of mild animated violence, no profanity, and plenty of laughs.

Isao Takahata is one of the greatest directors of all time, either in animation of live action, and here we are shown one of his early pre- Ghibli films. The quality of the artwork and animation is sub-par compared to his later films (such as Grave of the Fireflies, which he made only six years after this film but it feels like it was made with ten times the budget and more advanced technology). The soundtrack is marvelous as it consists of Beethoven's 6th symphony and there is a very interesting cello solo later in the film.

Overall, I found this film better than Pom Poko and Yamadas but not as good as Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday, which I consider his two masterpieces.

Really well-made. Beautiful, poetic, dreamy, moving. And all that with humor. I watched it with my 8 years old son and we both laughed a lot. Beethoven looking angry from the wall was hilarious.

I'll watch it again.

A sweet and simple episodic tale of a boy who discovers musical inspiration through nature. Pretty soon, we, too, begin to hear the cuckoo bird's underrated song and begin to see the animal-shaped clouds & trees in the background as the film progresses. Regardless of who its audience is, Gauche the Cellist offers some valuable lessons in perspective. Pre-Ghibli Takahata forming his prime.