Entertaining Enough To Get Away With The Length

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2006)

How many people can sit through a 120-minute animated film? That's normally just too long for that genre. However, this one could meet that challenge. It only took me two sittings to make it all the way - that's very good, at least for me!
The best part of the film was the color, stunning in parts, beautiful and with great detail. It also had some wild characters and a bit of humor here and there, which helped. Overall, a good mix of good and evil and a different kind of story.
Being it's Japanese, you are going to get some different theology than you are accustomed to in the West ("the spirits of the wind and water have healed you," etc.) but it's not presented in a heavy-handed manner.
I was concerned early on as the young girl - the main character in the film - had a shrill voice that was not pleasant but she calmed down after the first part of the film.
Overall, entertaining and worth several looks.