Voyage vers la Lune

Started of very well, nice and gripping story. And then comes the moon with neon colors and a stupid pop star God. Is this what we really want to show the children? There are better ways to tell a story about loss and progress with life.

The animation starts really well. The animation, although not as impressive as Disney or Pixar, was still really beautiful. The setting for the story really draws you in. The characters are likable. Up until the point of FeiFei's journey to the moon. The setting is just awful to look at. The whole popstar Chang'e thing was just awful. Why was it there? I don't know, but it was completely unnecessary and jarring. Speaking of the songs in this movie - they are just not memorable. Again it just reminds you how much better Disney is at creating musical pieces which grip you and stay with you. Perhaps it would have been better to just leave out the singing. Especially the pop numbers. From that moment on the characters become kind of bland and lose me. Their motivations are questionable. The pacing is all over the place. I just couldn't wait fir the whole thing to end. It could have been a great movie but it's like they run out o steam mid writing and animating and it just turned into awfulness. I'd rate it between 4-5. Gave it 5 stars for the strong introduction to the story.

It's quite often when an animated film comes out and they try to imitate or to simulate the same narrative aspects or the same characterisation or even the same animated standards of Disney. Sometimes it's so good it stands out, but other times the story mechanics are very familiar with Disney that it can make the film very far from being a success. Over the Moon is a charming Chinese inspired animation that's both victim to that but also different to that and thankfully sets the bar quite high in animated filmmaking. The story is very familiar a teenage girl is trying to get over the death of her mother and to do that she must embark on a journey of enlightenment to move on. We've seen it all before, but the one thing that's different is the colours whether it's the weird and wonderful creatures walking around or the stunning picturesque views of China's landscape. It will often remind you of Spirited Away or Inside Out or other brilliantly successful animations. Granted Over the Moon may not be new when it comes to the storytelling or the pain we all experience when feeling grief but the colours alone make it a wild success and lest we forget the glorious tunes to boot which will make you cry, make you dance and make you smile. It's likely that Netflix will go to the Oscars with this but whether they'll get the prize is a different story. But it flies high past other films of 2020 and could actually be the best animated film of the year...maybe. 4/5.

A Netflix animated movie that very much follows the Disney/Pixar conventions. It's done well and with sensitivity, but it's let down by a mediocre middle section.

Loosely based on a Chinese legend, it tells the story of a girl whose mother dies and has to face the possibility of his father marrying again. She is not ready to let go and accept someone else in her family, so she ends up travelling to the moon with the unwelcome company of her annoying little step-brother to find proof that the fairy tales her mother told her were real, and hopefully convince her dad to remember her mother and not marry again.

The 3D animation looks quite good in the scenes set in China, with very expressive characters suiting the sentimental story being told. Once on the Moon, however, the acid-trip colors used there can't hide that the animation becomes more simplistic and cheap.

It's also in that middle part where the sensitive storytelling turns into a collection of so-so animation for children tropes. The improvement of the relationship between the main character and her step-brother is explored very superficially.

The songs (for this is a musical) are nice, and the resolution is satisfactory. Sure, the message here is very conventional, but then this is a movie for children, and it is with enough charm that I found it touching. It is a pity that they couldn't come up with something more special for the middle section.

This is a film in two parts: the beginning and end are a very nicely animated story of grief and the struggle to belong while the middle is a strange neon Fantasia adventure that isn't wholly appealing. The animation stops just short of being interesting or inventive, but the music is flat out boring (I cannot recall a single bit of it less than an hour from finishing the movie). Much is familiar with Disney's influence everywhere. The hare looks exactly like a green Mad Hatter and you'll spy Cinderella's castle at least once. Some things aren't as well defined and look almost unfinished. There are absolutely moments of excellence (there's a particularly great moment at the end), but overall I was bored. This film had great promise and I love the representation. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me.