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.
