Well, it's not Mononoke Hime but...

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2001)

Although the epic measures of his previous work can't be matched (and maybe he wants it that way), Miyazaki's new Sen is an equal beautiful movie to look at. It's a kind of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" story that can only be executed in Japanese animation. The character design is wonderful as ever and now that it's not of that grim undertone that Mononoke had, it's full of strange characters doing funny things (or vice-versa). And some of them are cute as might be. Furthermore all the while (2 hours and 20 minutes) there's no singing or disturbingly silly behaviour on any part. So let's hope to see this movie in an adequate way in the west as well for it's not your usual for-the-kids-summer-animated-feature. But, then again, no one would have expected this, right?