Lamù: Beautiful Dreamer

It's hard to describe the effect that first seeing this movie had on me the first time I saw it five years ago, but it's something that's stuck with me at the very least.

This was the first bit of UY I ever saw, and I quickly became addicted to the series because of it. The animation is wonderful, the characters are all nifty, and the mysteries that abound in the story are all intriguing. I sometimes find myself just randomly whistling the music from this movie as it's so... so simply wonderful. The film is just beautiful in every chord, like a concerto or a painting. It's art.

This is one of my favorite movies ever. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Rating: 10/10 - Perfect.

For the record, I saw the dubbed version of this movie. The American voices are pretty good, but I still like the Japanese ones better.

Ataru and Lum's voices are in the spirit of their JP counterparts, but Lum just sounds a bit off. The NA voice, while still very good, just doesn't have that super sweet, cuteness her JP voice has. Atuaru's voice suits him, but doesn't quite give off that air of lechery his JP voice does. The other voice are all well done, with Sakura, Perm, Ten and Mendou being especially good. Mendou's VA really captures his arrogance.

As for the story, the only thing I can really compare it to is "Dark City." I know UY and Dark City are about as far apart as you can get, but both movies really convey the whole "What is a dream? What is real?" idea. While I was disappointed that this movie didn't have the wild physical antics we see on the show, I found myself enjoying the intelligent and philosophical script.

Overall, this film has a few flaws but I enjoyed it a lot. "Beautiful Dreamer" should be in the library of any anime fan.

There are apparently other movies in this series as this is the second. However, I never saw the one that came before this one or any of those that may have come after. So I have to say right off the bat a lot of the story was kind of left off when I watched this one on the syfy channel when it did not have the stupid name. In spite of the fact I did miss a few things by not seeing the first one I still rather enjoyed this one. The main things I was missing was most likely an introduction to the characters, but this did not deter from this movie all that much. I mean it would have been nice to see how the characters got to know each other and it would have been nice to see the strange girl's origin story, but I rolled with it and enjoyed the film. It reminded me a bit of Tenchi Muyo, only it was less strange than that show in some areas and actually more strange in other areas. The story has these kids at a high school getting ready for some sort of school festival in which they decorate a room in some sort of theme. The main group that is followed in this one has a room that is sort of a café with a twist in that a tank is in the room. No one seems to know how the tank got there though and that is your first clue that all is not as it appears. Like I said one of the girls is an alien who is infatuated with this boy and she refers to him as Darling. She has bizarre powers, but they are not really all that important to this particular story. I am guessing she played more of an important role in the first movie in the series. Well it is not to long before stuff gets stranger and stranger and you soon find out why things are a bit strange. Along the way you get a lot of humor as the film is mostly a comedy with some mystery thrown in to keep you guessing. The characters were fun and colorful and I liked the school setting, I am a bit surprised by how old this one is as when I first saw it I would have guessed it was most likely a 1992 or later released film. The film though is not perfect, part of it is that one is a tad lost if you had not seen the previous movie, which they for some reason never showed on syfy, and the ending is a bit anti-climatic, I was expecting something more for the ending. Still, overall it was really enjoyable and funny thanks mainly to the colorful characters.

The TV series was relatively funny and watchable but did not let any great memory. This movie however is playing the dream and let you a long and delightful taste. Simply put, with 15 years in retrospect it appears to me being one of the best anime movie I have seen. The atmosphere of the film is light and joyful, using the characters we all knew from the series, but it adds a layer of complexity and philosophy (movie level...), of deep down narration based on old legends allied with humour that makes it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. This is one of Mamoru Oshii's finest production in a career that counts among the richest and more creative. Definitely to be recommended.

This is widely held to be one of the finest of the Urusei Yatsura movies, although rumor has it that creator Takahashi Rumiko was not overly fond of how it turned out. Along with the slapstick romantic comedy that is the UY hallmark, "Beautiful Dreamer" features a deeper, more philosophical note. Those who have seen some of television episodes and rejected it as being too simple or childish owe it to themselves to reserve final judgement until they have seen this movie.

In a nutshell, the story begins much like any other UY storyline. It's the day before the school cultural fair, with all of the craziness which that entails, and the usual gang of idiots is getting their cafe ready. But some strange things are going on - a tank which was destroyed yesterday is whole again this morning. And wasn't YESTERDAY the day before the fair? And why do all roads return to Tomobiki High School? The only two people who seem to be aware of the problem, moreover, are school nurse Sakura and every student's nemesis Onsen-Mark.

This sets up an exploration into the meaning of reality and dream, and the place of love within each. With lots of Takahashi's visual references and sight-gags, this is a film that NEEDS to be watched more than once - it's just not possible to catch everything the first time!

Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer features a few mild curses and comic-book violence, but has nothing that would be offensive to most people. The storyline, however, because of its frequent blurring of fantasy and reality might prove a bit hard to understand to some younger viewers.