Katana_dk

Don't disregard this as "just" a kids' show - Yes it is, but it also isn't. And I'll explain why you should watch it and when you shouldn't

There's more to it, but broadly summarized, the point of Infinity Train is to teach its passengers and the younger audience a moral lesson or two. Some times subtly and some times ham-fisted. This may come off as a bit garish or boring for adults watching without kids, but for those adults (like me) the GREAT attraction here is that everything here is just oozing creativity and playfulness, and is a joy to watch and think "What's next?".

Notably that each episode features at least one new train car, which the protagonist has to travel through, and which often counts as "puzzle of the week". The creators must have found a real special kind of mushrooms,, because the creativity and diversity is off the charts. For example; carrot car, origami civilization car, anti-gravity-turtles-where-jam-is-a-mode-of-transportation car, doily car, countryside-Italy-but-the-people-are-flowers car, talking water car... If you're not thinking "That sounds insane AND I want to see how that can possibly make any kind of sense", then you should probably find something else.

It's worth mentioning that each episode is only 11 minutes long, so it's perfect for accompanying a quick breakfast or a bus ride, but it's definitely also good enough to sit down and watch intently.

"Japanese cartoons are for kids"...

This is yet another movie to show to people who wrongfully believe that!

A movie like "Ghost in The Shell" and the series "Neon Genesis Evangelion" have proven to contain more plot in the screenplay, and even afterthought in the mind of the audience, than most Hollywood-movies I know of. "Patlabor 2" is definitely another addition to my list of movies I would say disproves the first sentence in this comment.

As other commenters have noted, "Patlabor 2" resembles a Tom Clancy political thriller. The storytelling was so good that it got my heart racing in some scenes, and that is saying a lot from my point of view (Trust me on that one - I've seen "The Others" and similar movies, without moving a muscle when the rest of the theatre screamed).

If the story was tightened here, and the plot was elaborated there, "Patlabor 2" could be made into a Hollywood-movie as a frame-by-frame copy! I really mean that - There is always room for improvement, but in my opinion there are only very minor blemishes to the flow of the movie. I enjoyed every second, although some other commenters found the "slow parts" boring or irrelevant.

The music (or lack thereof) is also definitely worth a mention. It's hard to describe - I just couldn't imagine it being any different for this movie. The reason I write lack of music is because there are scenes where any Hollywood-producer would have slapped on some generic classical music, but in this case there is none. For example there is a scene after a climax where you just see different parts of the cityscape, with snow falling, and there is no sound at all. THAT's movie-magic. It's part of what draws me to this strange, exotic type of movies - it's so different than what most of us are used to.

Recreate the visuals using a film-camera, actors and a special-effects crew, copy+paste the music, label it "made in Hollywood" and you've got yourself a blockbuster-hit!

Japanese cartoons are for kids - not. If you have a brain, and an attention-span bigger than your average action-monkey, this movie is for you.

I saw this movie was being shown on TV late in the evening, and thought "there's usually a good reason for it, when they show French movies on this channel", and BOY am I glad I saw it! L'Appartement deserves a remake, just so that a wider audience will go to the theatre and enjoy this enthralling storyline (Although watching it in its original language doesn't sabotage the story). You may recall movies like _Nightwatch (1997)_ (qv) and _Vanilla Sky (2001)_ (qv) which are American remakes of their Danish (_Nattevagten (1994)_ (qv)) and Spanish (_Abre los ojos (1997)_) counterparts. These 2 movies are quite different, but they have one thing in common: a GREAT story. Just the same with "L'Appartement", the story lifts it up higher than any superstar-acting or ILM special-effects ever could.

Not saying that there's anything wrong with the acting, it's actually perfect in my opinion. And special effects really wouldn't help this movie in any way.

As another commenter noted, this thing has more plot-twists than _Wild Things (1998)_ (qv). I would go so far and call them insane plot-twists. Not that they aren't plausible, they just change the plot like you would never guess. I dare you: guess the ending... Okay, you might guess correctly 1 plot-twist ahead, but I swear that'll be it!

This is indeed a movie for the smart audience...