A nice film for a quiet evening

Rating: 7/10 (10 August 2007)

Firstly i have to say that i enjoyed this film. It was really beautiful to watch, especially with the rolling Japanese countryside, (as with all Miyakazi films) and was suitably short. Many of the scenes were innovative and i particularly enjoyed the cat bus scenes. However, as much as i liked the film, there were some major flaws, the main reason i only gave this film 7 out of 10. The first Miyakazi film i watched was Howl's Moving Castle, an epic film which i thoroughly enjoyed and watched multiple times. Howls Castle had a good script and good English voice-overs, but most importantly it had a credible plot and at the end of the film, i was left feeling i had achieved something by watching it. Unfortunately, this film didn't really go anywhere, and despite the fact i enjoyed it, i wasn't very pleased with it. The characters began to grate, especially the little child (Mia?), and the script was very weak. It may be that the English translation was very poor, and in that case, it was acceptable, but i was unimpressed with it at the end of the day. On the other hand, the shortness of the film saved it, and i would definitely recommend this as a good children's film, though I'm not sure it would appeal to a lot of adults, (i am typing here aware that a good deal of adults have commented and really enjoyed this film, but this is purely my humble opinion). I think 7 is a perfectly decent score for a perfectly decent film, but i think it is somewhat lacking in some departments, and that is a little bit disappointing.