Managed to catch this one at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.
I'm going to be honest, I really enjoyed the first 20 minutes of the film as it was quite interesting but unfortunately as the film continues, the film doesn't have a grasp on what it wants to be and goes all over the place.
Throughout, the animation colors, models, designs, and structures are insanely beautiful as Asian Animated movies tend to have some beautiful looking animation designs and colors. There were some pretty good sound designs and some interesting tense moments throughout the film during some underwater sequences and moments. Unfortunately, the positive aspects are overshadowed from the sloppy narrative and uninteresting characters.
The narrative explores themes of pain and healing, sacrifice, and acceptance and I can see where the film is heading and trying to explain but unfortunately the themes are sloppy and goes quite all over the place. There were even moments that felt like it ripped off Spirited Away too much. The voice performances for the most part are okay as they did their job on making their characters move around. None of the characters were really interesting which made it difficult to really fully connect with them. Despite the amazing animation, there were noticeable moments where the voicing doesn't much the mouth movements of the characters which was very distracting.
The soundtrack is pretty good, the direction was kind of bland and the last act does explore some pretty interesting emotional territories but the overall film doesn't do much justice which makes the film overall disappointing.
It has good intentions but it's not as good as I hoped for.
I'm going to be honest, I really enjoyed the first 20 minutes of the film as it was quite interesting but unfortunately as the film continues, the film doesn't have a grasp on what it wants to be and goes all over the place.
Throughout, the animation colors, models, designs, and structures are insanely beautiful as Asian Animated movies tend to have some beautiful looking animation designs and colors. There were some pretty good sound designs and some interesting tense moments throughout the film during some underwater sequences and moments. Unfortunately, the positive aspects are overshadowed from the sloppy narrative and uninteresting characters.
The narrative explores themes of pain and healing, sacrifice, and acceptance and I can see where the film is heading and trying to explain but unfortunately the themes are sloppy and goes quite all over the place. There were even moments that felt like it ripped off Spirited Away too much. The voice performances for the most part are okay as they did their job on making their characters move around. None of the characters were really interesting which made it difficult to really fully connect with them. Despite the amazing animation, there were noticeable moments where the voicing doesn't much the mouth movements of the characters which was very distracting.
The soundtrack is pretty good, the direction was kind of bland and the last act does explore some pretty interesting emotional territories but the overall film doesn't do much justice which makes the film overall disappointing.
It has good intentions but it's not as good as I hoped for.