Over the Moon

I have to laugh at people complaining about this movie because it's a musical or mentions the moon a lot. Like... yeah. The trailer pretty efficiently covers that! Anyway... More than once I was awed at the colors and visuals. The storyline is sweet and a little sad. All of the songs were so beautiful. But what else can I expect from a movie starring Philippa Soo? Plus I love to see the representation!!

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.

Top notch animation. but if you've seen as many animated films as i've done then the plot won't stand out in any way.

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.