So depressing and so boring.

Rating: 2/10 (14 July 2012)

I give one star for the fantastic animation and voice-acting. This movie is indeed very beautiful to look at and the voices fit the characters.
Unfortunately, there's an overwhelmingly bad about this movie, hence the low score.

Bad Advertising - This movie-poster and trailers give the impression that this is a lighthearted and fun movie. Colorful balloons, funny looking bird, bright lit sky. The back of the DVD even says it's a fun-filled adventure full of laughter. What we get is a very depressing, sad, boring, frightening and mean-spirited movie with the occasional attempt at a funny scene that lasts a second or two. The only thing that had me giggle was the bird and the scene where the old man imagines dropping the kid from the house.

Lack of plot - I agree with other reviewers, it seems that they had a great idea and once they get to their destination this movie hits the drain. Instead of the goofy bird, we get dogs that can talk with collars (I thought they were creepy) and a maniac who wants to kill the main characters to capture the goofy bird. Was this at all in the advertisement or back of the DVD? Nope. And what's up with the adventurer and his age? He looks younger than Carl, but should be about 30 years older. And why wouldn't a collar that makes dogs talk and able to understand humans not be more interesting to show than that goofy bird? Heck, even a collar that makes dogs understand human emotions as well? Nope, only goofy birds are good enough for scientists.

Depressing - The characters aren't likable (except the bird) and there's a lot of violence, sad moments, scary moments... I also thought it was very unneeded with the aggressive dogs. The moment where Kevin is caught in the net and taken away from her babies was also depressing. This whole movie is a huge downer. I don't mind depressing animated movies if they are done well. "The Land Before Time" is an excellent movie which faced many difficult things, but had enough humor and charm to balance it. This movie also started with killing off the funniest character, Ellie, by having her grow up into an old lady and die of cancer. Now that set me up in a bad mood from the very start.

This isn't a movie I would want to watch again. I could barely make it through the last 30 minutes of the movie. The ending was disappointing and predictable.