Enjoyable but Unimaginative

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2004)

First of all, I'd like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of this film and intend to see it several more times. On a technical level, Miyazaki has elevated the traditional 2-D animated film above the cheesier but more realistic 3-D Computer-generated works that seem to prevail everywhere else. Whether he used computers to simulate the 2-D look is beyond my current knowledge, but I applaud his attempt to abandon the technique that even crept into his previous work, _Spirited Away_.
The film is *very* loosely based on the original novel. In fact, only the basic premise and the main characters seem to have survived Miyazaki's scalpel. As a story, it is unimaginative and trite. Furthermore, the characters lacked depth. Unlike he did with _Kiki's Delivery Service_, Miyazaki failed to improve upon the original work.
All is forgiven, though. This is one-hundred percent pure uncut Miyazaki. I was left with the impression that he was going to have fun with a project, this was the project, and he had a great deal of fun with it. Joe Hisaishi, once again, provided excellent musical support. I gave this film an 8.