A sweet movie but that's about it

Rating: 5/10 (20 March 2019)

I was expecting to be wowed by this movie but found it really disappointing. Please do not think I am ignorant in terms of film. I enjoy animation and watch plenty of subtitled film. The animation itself was superb, so crisp and bright, nostalgic in many ways. The score really complimented it also. I just did not really enjoy the story. It seemed to be very jumbled and trying to get too many themes and messages across. Greed, coming of age, friendship, even environmental harm. It was just too much. I found nearly all the characters somewhat annoying apart from Haku. The young girl who was the main hero grated on me after a while. The spirit world also was confusing. It was hard to figure out who was good and bad at times and I pondered whether all the spirits were actually being held prisoner. I also thought the ending was a bit lame. Without giving away too much they introduced a character towards the end and it somehow felt only to bring the movie to a conclusion and help the young girl. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of what happened after. A strange movie in many ways and I am baffled as to why I did not enjoy it and so many people rave about it and it lays claim to being one of the greatest movies of all time. Maybe I have missed something, I really don't know.