Deja Vu Indulgence As Animation

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2002)

This is a film that one must see with as many friends as possible at the same time, then spend the next two hours picking it apart and then reassembling the parts back into its original flow  but with a clearer understanding of the moral and metaphors and parables that were visually acquired during the viewing.
And then save the next day for a phone call or two to add another interpretive layer.
The animation was, clearly, the most refreshing visuals I have seen in one film. I have not experienced an animation film that changed in dynamic fashion to fit the mood of the story. There were simple sketches, or photographic quality renderings, or complex layers or angles of perspective -- all of which defined the animation itself as having a distinct personality in parallel and union with the story telling.
FANTASTIC!!!
The story was steeped in many notions: (1) self-indulgence and its tendency to acquire more and more things in expanding greed and dependence on consumption of goods and services in some religious or patriotic fashion; (2) the growing power of those who run' or control an economic infrastructure or business; (3) the innocence of youth and coming of age while taking control of one's own life and future; (4) the loss of respect by youth towards their parents; and (5) the most obvious, a venture outside of our own dimension on Planet Earth into that of spiritual beings where there is a spirit or ghost for everything on earth from a Japanese radish to a green frog to a timid speck of black coal dust that is tasked with the heaviest chore to stoke power consumption by feeding chunks of coal into the furnace.
I find the oddest thing in this whole post-viewing and writing experience is the fact that Disney acquired the rights to the film's distribution at some level outside of Japan when in fact the film itself smites the over expansion of theme parks (in Japan and elsewhere, I suppose) as over-indulgence in (American) corporate irresponsibility in the skimming of profits away from Japan and its residents and citizens.
Hello, Mr. Déjà vu. How do you Due?