An interesting premise let down by an overly complicated and stylized presentation and a script that fails to make any of the characters likeable. Who was I supposed to be rooting for? Even our POV heroine is written so inconsistently it becomes impossible to root for her.
A lot of creative potential here but it needed a much stronger guiding hand to reign in some of the problems.
An overwhelming achievement in every sense of the word, particularly when seen in a premium large format. (I saw it in a Dolby Cinema.)
Even spread out over two films with long run times, the film still has to sacrifice much from the books, meaning it looses quite a bit of texture but makes for a far more streamlined story. The changes made to the end of the story may prove not quite as controversial as the 1980’s ending, but…
Another masterpiece from one cinema’s greatest artists. Like “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Wizard of Oz”, and “The Never Ending Story” before it, this film takes the dreams and anxieties of childhood and captures them through the lens of adulthood. How lucky we are that the lens is that of Hayao Miyazaki, who shows us again the power and limitless possibilities of hand drawn animation.
Note: Watched in Japanese with English subtitles.
