A Caminho da Lua

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.

As a Chinese person, I LOVED seeing so much wonderful cultural representation and the all-Asian cast. As a kid, there was very little of this type of thing available to me and I'm happy that my four year old enjoys this movie and sees positive representations of this part of her heritage.

I thought the visuals were stunning, and the animation and character design were lovely.

Otherwise, it was... fine. I feel like the movie started off strong. I got teary during the first part. Then the story just got kind of confusing and I felt very little emotional connection to the characters. The singing is good, but I didn't find the music as catchy or memorable as some other recent musicals. I'll watch this again with my kid and I prefer it to something like Frozen, Cars, or The Good Dinosaur, but I don't think it's as good as my favorite Pixar films like Wall-e or Monsters, Inc.

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.