Beautiful

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2003)

::Caution: May Contain Minor Spoilers::
Admittedly, I went into the film with LOW expectations, regardless of the good things I heard about it. It just seemed too weird. Some little girl getting taken away to a spirit inhabited world, on a quest to save her parents from a lifetime of being pigs. (However short that lifetime would be. Mmm... Bacon.)
Wow.
This totally surpassed all my expectations. Sure, some of the monsters were a bit freaky, especially the old lady and her enormous baby, but you get used to that. I went in with apprehensions about one monster, (who other people had commented on it projectile vomiting-- something I don't deal with so well) but it wasn't bad, even that. And sure, this is animation, done in Japan, and you may be thinking.. "Ew, anime. Dumb shoot-em-up cartoon. Totally male-adolescent-video-game-obsessed-geek fare. No way. This is not a cartoon, it is animation. This is something parents can take their kids to (in most cases. I'm sure some of this stuff would give kids nightmares), but not get bored out of their skull, which seems to be the case in most movies aimed at children nowadays.
The animation was simple, in an amazing way, and many of the things in that movie are meant just to see. I thought about this movie for a long time afterward, and it still left me stunned, in only the way an awesome film can. If it comes to a theater near you,
SEE THIS MOVIE.
I doubt you'll regret it.