Ni no Kuni

The characters are probably the most consistent part of the movie. They seem well developed and I started to care for them a bit by the end. The other writing really starts to fall apart, haphazardly throwing items and historical events at you in the third act then acting like you've been given enough context to care about them.

Ni no Kuni works very hard to recreate the Studio Ghibli aesthetic - bringing on some Ghibli staff and composer Joe Hisaishi - but the animation budget here is clearly not enough to hold the illusion for the movie's runtime. As it goes on, it starts to feel more like a mid-budget TV anime with flat shots and static animation.

Overall, it's an okay movie with not enough time or money to flesh out all of its ideas. There are worse ways to spend two hours.

This was an enjoyable film but I feel there was too much important info that is missing for the story. The movie tells of a city called Beladon, where many important events took place, but it never goes into detail about why these events took place. If this were a game, the events would have been given greater attention. The studio had to cram as much as they could into a nearly 2 hour film but it left too many unanswered questions.

Watched this on Netflix earlier and overall it's just kinda okay. Very very ... okay. It is visually pretty and well done with bright colors and fluid animation overall. However it's plot sags in a bunch of places and feels rushed. Characters often come up with conclusions out of nowhere and there are moments where the characters exposit important information out of their ass that was never established anywhere in the plot. Also of note, I watched the English dub. And it is pretty subpar tbh. I'd put this on for your older kids as there is a bit of violence and some suggestive content (impalement, pole dancing with no nudity) but I think anyone over 14 might be left unsatisfied.

The anime movie Ni no Kuni, now out on Netflix, is based on the video games of the same name. It isn't based on the story of the first one but takes place within the games' chronology. In it, two high school friends find themselves transported from our world into the magical world of Ni no Kuni.

Admittedly, this is kind of a basic fantasy story structure in sort of a basic fantasy land, but it is a well handled film. Everything about this is generally fun. I rather liked the mechanics of the connections between our world and Ni no Kuni. The dynamic between and motivations behind the two leads are strong. I particularly liked Yuu, the wheelchair-bound one who is brave, intelligent, and cool headed.

If you're familiar, the first Ni no Kuni game included animation from Studio Ghibli. In fact, the director Yoshiyuki Momose was animator for the studio. Now, this doesn't have quite the level of detail of Ghibli or the games, but it still all looks pretty nice.

Be forewarned that there is a moment with an adult character talking about a seventeen year-old's attractiveness that gets uncomfortable. It is over and done with very quickly.

Overall, I'm glad I saw this on a whim. It's a nice little time waster and a bit of a feel good film.

This movie follows in the footsteps of the video games, has an equal potential to tell a great, sometimes complicated story. It straight up throws away so many scenes that could've been made to both improve the bond between the characters and to strengthen the plot. Instead, they seem to take a shortcut on explaining or showing things by inserting a really lazy written dialogue - usually a size of a sentence at max, to simply let the character notify the others why she arrived late.

It feels like there would've been enough story to make a two and a half hour movie, but everything that wasn't strictly related to the main plot was just cut off entirely. I did not get to bond with any of the characters in this movie, and the ending would've actually been an amazing twist if they'd shown a bit more passion and time to introduce even the two main characters to the audience.

Story aside, audio was great and visuals were okay. Only reason why I just have to rate the visuals down from what could've been great, is the fact that even that feels so rushed. Animation part is gorgeous and has very notable touch of Studio Ghibli - yet doesn't really hit the same level of detail - especially in motion.

What gives the visuals a huge negative hit are the CGI that is used in the majority of bigger fighting scenes. It is also used as an effect at some points, but I did not find it that disturbing - although I would've preferred those effects to be animated instead. During fighting scenes, you can see how the movement and visual part of the characters stands out as being notably different to those that are animated on the foreground. It's kind of giving this movie a tiny hint of probably unintended humor, as looking at the two CGI characters fighting on the background with the world's laziest and most repetitive movement patterns around really made me laugh. I wouldn't have minded the lazy moves if it would've been animated like the rest of the movie. It would've fit in - as for the CGI rendered characters stand out way too much and kind of force you to pay attention. Needless to say, the CGI parts feel very, very lazy and rushed.

Budget probably wasn't where the studio hoped it to be, but because of that I really hate to see another movie based on a video game fail. I'm a guy who watches even mediocre movies repeatedly over the years - this I would not watch again, not even to show it to someone else.