Absolutely *not* my favorite anime

Rating: 3/10 (6 July 2006)

This movie is absolutely far from being my favorite. Actually, it reaches the opposite end of the scale.
Why? (personal opinion) Lacking the depth of Mononoke-Hime and the beauty and fantasy of Chihiro (Spirited Away), if falls short in most regards. Maybe I am spoiled by the later movies, but the story was flat, predictable and straight forward. The graphics were sometimes really nice, but neither overwhelming nor stunning. For me the story failed to unfold, and I never felt connected to any of the protagonists. Sitting in the cinema I was (strangely) reminded of Star Wars 1. A lot of nice scenes and random events, but badly connected and hardly surprising at any given time. Also, the movie contains various elements of slapstick, fighting (with some force/brutality - plenty people get killed (though not directly visible)) and Jules-Verne-style tech-fantasy. But it never excels in any of those elements, they come rather "cheap" and mixing them wildly does not make any movie any better.
For kids it might be an okay movie, but it lacks the "cuteness"-factor (except for some seconds with (fantasy) animals). For parents (or adults in general) it might become boring.
This is my heavily biased subjective opinion - maybe without a 7.9 here on IMDb I would have watched it with lower expectations, but I guess I still would have been disappointed big time.....