If You Have Seen Fututre Boy Conan or Howl's Moving...Skip This

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2014)

Miyazaki's films often have similar themes and similarly drawn characters. If I have to reframe from mentioning his other works and look solely at this film I suppose I would give it a 7 out of 10 and say it was good. However having seen Future Boy Conan before this as well as Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind and Howl's Moving Castle I would have to say this this movie in comparison to the aforementioned is skipable as it pales in comparison to those movies in story-telling, overall scenes, and English dubbing. I find that this movie shares similarities with the other movies in that: In Future Boy Conan the aircraft resemble moths/bugs. In this movie the aircraft resemble dragonflies/bugs. In ever movie mentioned here there is a theme of high technology controlled by the government/past that can destroy the world and a young boy and girl try and prevent this technology from destroying the world...There are similar looking characters.....Overall Future Boy Conan has more lovable characters and more humor. There are scenes in that series that are laugh out loud funny and heart warming as well! It's well worth the watch. And Nausica of The Valley is a great summary of Future Boy Conan.. It closely follows the theme of that series and reinterprets it in a new way and puts it in a feature length film VS a series of episodes and it does a great job of expressing high destructive technology vs peace loving nature....Does that make sense? Basically I have seen those movies and love them more than this. I was looking forward to this movie being great but i felt it was just a waste of time. It also bothered me how the boy in this movie never got to fly his aircraft that he built (then why even show it???) and how he didn't seem to posses any special skill 3/4ths of the movie yet somehow could climb like spider-man near the end and do things no human could ever do. He somehow had hands and feet that could cling unrealistically to a metal tube that went upwards- and free-climbed across roots like a monkey and it was just so unrealistic it bothered me....At least in Future Boy Conan the boy was shown from the very beginning as having unusual strength and skill. But this boy in this movie was ordinary until the end when he made a 360....