Good but One-Dimensional

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2000)

I did enjoy it, but I felt like it was just a little too one-dimensional. There were moments of good animation, and moments of great storytelling, but it certainly was not pure magic as we have seen from Miyazaki films, nor do I feel it is something "profound" in any way.
I felt like there really wasn't much depth to this story. Here's some bad stuff.. and some more bad stuff.. but look, the bad stuff is happening to good people. Depressing for sure, and I got some of the points, but they just weren't enough for me to rate this movie more highly.
It sort of reminded me of movies like "In the Company of Men" where they take a depressing idea and beat you over the head with it. Unlike that movie, though, I didn't come away from the movie with some sort of embarrassment on behalf of mankind, etc. The movie went down paths I've been before in much deeper movies, and while the story was quaint and interesting, it simply is not a masterpiece by any stretch.