Sailor Moon SuperS: la película

For many franchises, when it comes to trilogies the third film can hit two spots. The more unusual route is the final film being a knockout end to fantastic story. Normally though, final films end in the lowest of the lowest rating compared to the ones before it. For the Sailor Moon series, despite it being delayed in sending out its set of films, they started out solid with Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose (1993). This was after the second season. Then after the third season finished, the franchise came out with Sailor Moon S: The Movie - Hearts in Ice (1994) as the second entry and it was a little weaker in storytelling. And finally, after the end of the fourth season this movie was released and it is better than the second film. Of course it still has its flaws to contend with.

The story follows the sailor guardians facing off an evil witch who employs henchman fairies with magic flutes to whisk children away into a realm where they will never grow up. They only discover this after Chibiusa (Sandy Fox) is almost kidnapped by the hypnotic sound of the pied piper-esque villains. Of them though, one fairy named Perle (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) disagrees with what's being done and joins Sailor Moon (Stephanie Sheh) and friends. Writing this feature is Yôji Enokido, who's also a writer to the show. Doing the English dub is Lisa Lumby-Richards who also worked on the English dub of the show. As for directing, Hiroki Shibata returns from the last film to head this project. From the story side of this film, the underlying message of understanding growing up is apart of life is a significant one. There's just no way around it.

Additionally, the lesson that a child's ambitions and beliefs change over time as they grow is also important. The main issue though outside of that is the witch Badiane (Tara Sands). The motive behind the villain and her backstory is largely absent and comes across weak in development. In a way Badiane is just another bland villain from the inventory of evil doers to come and go. The only thing that Badiane is after is the children's "sugar energy", which in all honesty sounds really corny. It's also interesting because practically all of the fourth season of the show was about dreams. And this feature focuses very much of that again on children and the dreams they have. It's actually quite surprising how often this is mentioned through that season and this film. The other thing that doesn't make sense is why Perle disagrees with Badiane. No explanation was provided.

The performances from the English dub voice cast are all welcome once again for their roles. Stephanie Sheh is and always will be Usagi Sailor Moon. Sandy Fox as Chibiusa Sailor Chibi Moon is as boisterous as ever. Perle the fairy by Colleen O'Shaughnessey is convincing in the role despite the character being a boy. O'Shaughnessey would also voice Jasmine Fenton and the Danny Phantom series as well as Tails in the animated and live-action Sonic the Hedgehog films. Tara Sands as Badiane despite not being a fleshed out villain also does well. Sands would later be known as the voice of Pokémon's Bulbasaur and even Yu-Gi-Oh's Mokuba. And as a surprise the other worldly sailor guardians Uranus (Erica Mendez), Neptune (Lauren Landa) and Pluto (Veronica Taylor) return as well for a little screen time.

Cinematography is again apart of this film which by no means is clear as to how. Credit goes to Motoi Takahashi for this even though, it doesn't seem necessary. Besides that though, the look of the animation is well done. There's a lot more noticeable frames to the movements in scenes that make things move much smooth. The design of Badiane is also quite unique to look at. Finally, the music which was once again composed by Takanori Arisawa is on point. Since children are the main focus, Arisawa composes a little march for them as the tune Badiane's henchman play to hypnotize them. The remaining parts of the score are performed by classic orchestral pieces that play right into the scene at hand. Without this component, the film will not have the same amount of appeal.

The villain to this feature is not well developed and one key character's motive goes unexplained. The themes behind it though play a larger part. The animation, voice acting and music bring the third original Sailor Moon film back to a better standing than the first sequel.

I would never not purchase a Sailor Moon product, even the ones that I don't love the most. That aside, I didn't enjoy this Sailor Moon movie. Mostly, I didn't enjoy the whole Sailor Moon SS season of Sailor Moon. I found the relationship between Serena, Rini, and Darien disturbing and annoying.

I also thought that there wasn't enough emotional pull in the movie, Sailor Moon is known for making you cry in sorrow, or joy, but this movie wasn't that empowering.

Also it was too action packed, it was all about fighting and then some more fighting, and although I am not opposed to action I except more out of a Sailor Moon project. I except emotional pull, romance, tears, and tidbits of the typical teenager's life. I felt ripped off on that front.

now, this title i bought in vegas. it was a very decent one, my fav before i saw s. the story is straight forward, but the action scenes dominate the movie. that's not bad to me, but for others who want a good story, see r or s. anyway, i was hoping sailor saturn was going to be in it, but sadly, she wasn't. oh well. by the way, uranus and neptune in this drop hints on...you know...at a point. devoted fans will know what i'm talking about. overall, this has the best action of the three.

All over the world, reports are coming in of children disappearing in the dead of night en masse. Chibi-Usa has a chance encounter with a boy named Perle and gives him a bag of cookies as a gift. One night mysterious flute music begins drawing all of Juban's children for an unknown purpose including Chibi-Usa. The Sailor Guardians eventually locate the source of the music and learn that an evil queen named Badiane is abducting children for their dreams to create a world ending Black Dream Hole which the guardians must stop.

The final theatrical Sailor Moon film based off the original anime, the movie was produced during the run of Sailor Moon SuperS which adapted the Dream arc of the manga. The movie with its emphasis on dreams and Pied Piper of Hamlin by way of Hansel and Gretel narrative falls well in line with the established tone and aesthetic that characterized the arc run at the time. Fan reaction is pretty divided on SuperS because of its focus on the equally divisive Chibi-Usa, but I personally don't mind the arc. Admittedly the biggest drag on SuperS is the fact it's burdened with following in the steps of S that adapted arguably the strongest most "stakey" arc with the Death Busters, and following that very strong and often dark arc with an arc based around circus iconography and dreams was always going to pale in comparison. While Chibi-Usa was very grating in Sailor Moon R and her inclusion as Sailor Chibi-Moon in Sailor Moon S was often used as a running gag in how "stupid" the show seemed to think Sailor Chibi-Moon was as a concept. Sailor Moon SuperS for all you can criticize about it at least tried to build Chibi-Usa as a character which I personally felt was more successful than not (though your mileage may vary). Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie on the other hand not only feels like an abridged version of many of the elements seen in the SuperS arc of the anime, but it's also lacking in an emotional core like Sailor Moon S: The Movie managed to establish, and feels like there's too much in too little time.

The movie "tries" to have an emotional core with Chibi-Usa striking up a relationship with Perle who seems to be a boy but is in fact a "candy fairy", and from the character design with wings and white clothes to even the purpose the character serves storywise, this is a pretty shameless repackage of the relationship between Chibi-Usa and Helios the Pegaus from the SuperS arc which regardless of how you feel about SuperS as a whole was better done by virtue of allowing enough time to develop the relationship between Helios and Chibi-Usa so it had the resonance it needed. The screentime between Chibi-Usa and Perle is 3 maybe 4 minutes (if that). I will say that the movie at least looks nice with the animation and design work being well done with the innards of the floating "Marzipan Castle" having some truly amazing sequences such as a very elaborate tunnel sequence. The villains however are pretty underwhelming with Badiane feeling like a reskin of Queen Beryl and the garish "candy themed" aesthetic of the Candy Fairies ships and Marzipan Castle feeling like leftover assets from the Dead Moon Circus.

Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie is passable. Like the other Sailor Moon films, the movie exists with little regard to the series continuity serving as an excuse for slightly more polished animation than the TV series and telling a story that has no real lasting impact on the characters, story or setting. In terms of quality I'd probably say this is the second best of the Sailor Moon films nestled between Sailor Moon R at the bottom and Sailor Moon S at the top. We do get a complete story with a defined beginning, middle, and end, and on a technical level it's well animated, but the movie feels like it's a cliff note version of a season of the TV show that doesn't actually exist. It's serviceable enough for a quick "done in one" entry in the series, but it's not all that memorable.

If you are going to see this series of movies, please see them in order! it can really make for a head-warper if you watch these three out of order. Enough of that now, about Super S. The movie just plain-out kicks ass!! It's got a great story line, the animation is extremely good in some parts, and the last battle is absolutely insane (would YOU wanna take on a black hole??) All in All, this movie rocks hard, period.