Lu Over the Wall

I have absolutely no idea of the story line, and fortunately gave up trying. Some wonderful graphics, dance scenes and colorful interludes. What does it all mean? Just watch the ever changing scenes and don't give it a second thought.

This was cute and nice to look at, the style was innovative. However it often felt like a direct rip on Miyazaki's 'Ponyo'. Many of the plot points and visual concepts in the details all are too similar to those in Ponyo. From the broken english Lu has, coming from the ocean, obsessed with boy on land, loves food after discovering it, etc. it's a little too blatant. But to be fair, Miyazaki set the bar pretty high and many anime that come out these days are clearly inspired by his work, but there were just too many coincidences to not make one notice the similarities in this film. Even with that said, it was still enjoyable, sweet, and cute.

For a movie that begs a comparison to Ponyo, it barely squeaks past it in terms of it's creative presentation, but stumbles at style consistancy and plot coherency.

While nothing in the movie *doesn't* make sense, a lot of it is hard to follow due to weird pacing decisions during important events, and visual decisuons that hamper communication in favor of leaning into Yuasa's presentation style.

The music is just OK for a movie about music, and the few scenes of high energy have a peculiar disconnect from the rest of the film.

Ultimately this movie feels like it started with good intentions, but ran out of creative steam somewhere in development. If you're a big Masaki Yuasa fan, there are things here for you, but it's otherwise OK to miss.

Go watch Mind Game instead if you wanna know what this director is about.

This was a fun movie, with infectious music. It taps in to what seems to be a running theme of modern industrailzied Japan making war on its traditional spirits, kind of like in Summer Days with Coo. It also features mermaids, who have an exuberance like Ponyo, but less child-like, and more adolescent-angsty.

Lu is a rare twin-tailed mermaid who loves music; when middle schoolers Kai, Yuho and Kunio secretly practice their indie-pop music on Merfolk Island, a pile of rocks near the fishing village of Hinashi, Lu cannot help but dance! Her tails turn into legs and she becomes a swirling dervish of movement. She also wants to be friends with everyone, but the people of Hinashi have many old tales about the merfolk, including that they eat people, and Lu may be in danger from those humans if the teenagers can't save her…. This is a lovely animated film, very colourful and with a mostly upbeat story line that young children would probably enjoy very much. All that, plus J-pop music too; a real winner!