Comet in Moominland

This movie has so many brilliant attributes, it's ridiculous. It has depth in so many levels, that after about 14 years of intense watching I still seem to keep finding new aspects from it.

The characters aren't the colourless and tasteless plastic ones they usually try to underestimate kids with. They're multidimensional. They're warm. They're funny. They're complex. They have their own distinctive personalities with their own ups and downs. There's Sniff the greedy but kindhearted hedonist. There's Little My the little boyish feminist who wants to tear down all the barriers between the male and the female sex. There's Moominpappa the hopeless romantic and poet who's struggling trough a midlife crisis trying to get more meaning to his life with adventures and boheme lifestyle...

There are the profound philosophical views on life, which are presented in such a down to earth way that even the smallest children may enjoy them just as well as the more mature audience. There are the environmental and social adumbrations to our modern life... The list goes on.

Still the thing that really makes moomin's so unique in todays children's programming is the way the characters and their everyday lives are presented. Usually there's the strict line between good and bad. The ones who have any imperfections of any kind in their personalities and behaviour are the "bad ones" and the "good ones" who never even feel tempted to do anything morally questionable are the ones who straighten the "bad ones" out. Like life would be that black and white. Tove's characters all have their little imperfections that annoy each another at times. Even the most "naughty" ones are still sympathetic and fragile little creatures deep down.

Although this movie is obviously aimed toward children with its story and characters, adults shall also be drawn into the movie and its story.

Sweet likable characters, an adventurous story. Really, what is there not to like about this movie?

It's a Japanse animated movie, based on the TV-series "Moomin". The animation style is typically Japanse and so are all of the characters. So the fans of the genre shall surely not be disappointed by this movie. You don't really must have watched an episode of "Moomin" before watching this movie. It's a story on its own and can be watched separately from the TV-series.

The story is simple and it purely relies on its characters and adventurous, though formulaic, elements of the movie. No, the movie doesn't ever surprises at any point but yet the story works out, thanks to its pace and storytelling and really likable characters. It also still has its great and unique moments, such as the part when the comet is about to hit the Earth, which is done surprisingly tense and provides the movie with a good finale.

The movie is greatly fun and humorous and makes sure that it never becomes too serious and therefor never really too scary for to watch for young children. It perhaps sometimes goes at the expense of the movie its tension and predictability but so be it.

Doesn't matter if you're a child or adult, this movie is a great one to watch!

8/10

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This film is one of the sweetest ones on earth. The world and ideology that Tove Jansson created and called Moomindale, are something adults can also think about. If you are fed up with the invariable animations for children, where every once in a while there is a big fight and all you see is a dust cloud, Moomins are something definitely different. A worn-out cliché is to introduce a new villain now and again to make the film move on, and fortunately this Tove doesn't fall into that trap of clichés. One might think, that a story cannot work with only nice and lenient characters, that are not strong enough, but that is totally wrong. That is the magic of Tove: she has strengthened the characters by positive attributes. Only a few writers can do that successfully.