A Magical Gem of a Movie

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2019)

27 October 2002. This great animated motion picture contains a lengthy portrayal of many strange events, weird shapes, both attractive and repulsive sights, both loveable and forgettable characters. This is a deep movie with a lot of action, great detail to animation, and many twisting steps from fantasy to magic, to comedy, to sadness, to whimsical imagination. There are thrilling, breathtaking experiences, of long steps down into the bowels of goal hungry furnaces, to ghostly figures, and exotic smells and flavors of the orient. We are drawn to the main girl's lonely plight and her the heroic path as well as different friends she meets along the way. A densely rich treat of mindful play by a great director of animation. 9 of 10.