Ni no Kuni

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.

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.

Ni no kuni isnt the best japanese animated film out there but for me it surved its welcome,film give us beautiful style of animation which in every shot looks clean and pretty enough to absorb it,story in a film will interest children of all ags including younger and older ones and it will also give them some valauble lessons for real life,however some parts of story were to messy to work and parts were characters travel between real life and stories were not so good connected to each other,and they become lost in some moments,ni no kuni is simply a film that will entertein children when you are doing something in house and cause of that they could learn some good life changing advices and messages

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.

I love the games, I love studio ghibli art, but this movie was pretty boring.. the very ending was interesting, but not enough to be worth the watch. It fell flat unfortunately..