Beautiful animation.

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2001)

This film has some of the most beautiful and realistic animation I have ever seen. Many of the backgrounds are so well painted that they like they are photographs. I was told that after the violence and mass destruction in his previous film `Tenku no shiro Rapyuta' (`Castle in the Sky: Laputa'), mothers in Japan were distressed that they had taken their very young children to see the film thinking it was going to be just a kiddy film. Supposedly, this film is his response to their outrage. This is the kiddy film to beat all kiddy films. There is no villain in this film. None. In spite of that, the story does not suffer at all. I personally found the story to be quite charming, very entertaining and totally unique. I must confess however, that I cannot stand the American voices used in the English dub of this film. If you have a chance to watch it in the original Japanese with subtitles I strongly encourage it.