O Reino do Rei Pena

Sometimes you get a hold of the movie, which makes instantly clear to you that it would be impossible to produce it in US (most of the movie production), or other studios around the world. That is mostly because Scandinavians have a very "intimate" way of depicting mosty anything in their movies. Their movies are often focused on interrelations that are often deemed unacceptable or inappropriate in other countries.

Good example would be "Let the Right One In" (Låt den rätte komma in), which would be essentially impossible to record in US.

Beyon Beyond has substance, the characters are not black and white - they are complex; both bad and good at the same time. All of the movie is in positive, childish tone, which makes it a pleasant experience to watch and learn from it, especially for children.

While this movie is not something "stellar", like Nauciaa, or Laputa, or Wall-e..., it has qualities beyond the ratings. The way this movie is made, is characteristically immersive, specific to Scandinavian culture, and I absolutely recommend it.

Watch it with your kid, and let it learn from it. We made a projection for 4yr old boy who loves spaceships and rockets, and he really liked this move. He asked to watch it again at some point later on.

Save yourself the time and bother and watch something else: I wouldn't recommend this for either kids or grownups.

After my child and I finished watching it we were not only unimpressed, we were actually a bit angry at the meandering story-line and the lack of explanation of certain actions. Now I should add that we watched the English dubbed version and so I was prepared to consider the possibility that the script was badly translated or that the dialogue was delivered in a way that it wasn't in the original. However, even if I was watching it on mute I would see the story repeating potentially emotionally powerful scenes and rendering them irritating.

I cant reveal which bits were repetitive or irritating without spoiling the film but I was amazed that no one in the creative process thought to edit the story a bit tighter. And yes, I do get that since this is a story about the afterlife we were going to be asked to accept certain rules about that world, but the story bores us by repeating these rules over and over and insisting that we couldn't be told the reason behind the rules. You end up with a world where blind faith is expected and their parallel to a God is pretty OK with vengeance and violence. (Good to know, hunh?) Given that the subject matter is children's experience of bereavement, they had a greater duty towards making the story less convoluted and confusing.

This was an excellent movie, I understood the meaning right off.

BEYOND BEYOND I was just about to fall off the chair the other day when I watched a DVD. It was a feature animated film from 2014 directed by a Dane, Esben Toft Jacobsen, but the production team seemed to be Swedish. I did not think the level of ambition in Denmark today held out for more than the usual run of the mill stories and production design, but I was wrong, and luckily so. It was a fairy tale in which a child, this time a rabbit, cannot bear the loss of his mother and thus embarks on a journey on ship to bring her back. The love story from Orpheus and Eurydice for children. There is a whole lot of help and adversity from all sorts of mysterious creatures he meets on his way, and it is exceedingly captivating to follow with plenty of pace all along. I sat and enjoyed the obvious references to Miyazaki, with little creatures that run in packs over the ground. This time they are not black but blue-green. The angel is in this version a scaly dragon- like creature, and Sct. Peter is a touching bureaucratic frog-like guy. Of the almighty godlike chaos force we only get to see the tentacles, but it is reminiscent of squid arms and enclose in the climax our poor friend's vessel. The character design is innovative and appealing. It is nice to see that you do not have to follow the standard tradition of design within CGI animation, which has become almost mandatory in the business. A story of life and death can be very strong, and it is in this case. I also got to think about the Irish film director Tomm Moore, who received an Oscar nomination for 'Song of the Sea' last year. Esben Toft Jacobsen had deserved a nomination as well.

I really love the Animation and the songs and the music by Jesse Pruett they really entertain me the acting especially Evan as Jonah really fits especially Carey Elwes as Jonah's Dad and Ambyr Childers as Jonah's Mom is really great the story is meaningful the graphics are decent enough the the moral is really useful.