Brave Story

Warning: Minor Spoilers ahead
Story: 8/10
The story was, overall, very enjoyable. I was able to sit down and watch the movie in its entirety without feeling bored or pausing for a break, which is pretty impressive considering my increasingly short attention span (something I deem a societal problem, not a personal one). It did have one rather jarring continuity issue, which unfortunately results in a "happy ending"--admittedly matching the tone overall, but contradicting the central message of the film: happiness cannot be achieved without hardship. I also disliked the montage around the 1/3 point of the movie, which was honestly unnecessary and kind of distracting. It ... leads to a feeling of disconnection between audience connection and character connection--which leads me to my second point.
Character: 7/10
The characters in Brave Story were likable, but out of the five characters featured in the cover art, only two were given the development they deserved. The montage I previously mentioned is part of the problem, but the larger issue was the lack of time. This movie was dense, and uses the time it was given (nearly two hours) pretty effectively, but in all honesty, it would work better as a 12 episode series than a stand-alone movie. That being said, the two main characters were given sufficient development to make the audience care about their "destinies."
Art: 7/10
I mean, it was 2004, so I can't be too harsh here...but god the CG. If you haven't seen the movie yet, watch out for the frog part. You've know what I'm talking about when you see it. It's like PS1 level graphics. Besides that, the traditionally animated parts are standard, but nothing impressive.
Sound: 7/10
The soundtrack was fine, but nothing stood out.
Enjoyment: 8/10
It was a good use of my time. The story was compelling. I'd watch it again.
Overall: 7/10

Brave Story: an adaptation from Miyuki Miyabi's novel of the same name, is a film that any kid under 10 would really enjoy. I say this due to that my 4 year old son and 2 of my nephews(also under 10) have made it their favorite movie. When I asked why they liked it, their answer was; "because it looked cool!"

Now I haven't played the games nor have I bought any of the franchise(apart from this DVD) which all stem from the novel, yet after finishing the film I knew that a lot of the script were cut from the original adaptation, making what could ... have been a great movie into something I'd say as mediocre. When I had asked the 3 boys if they knew what the story was about, all 3 shook their heads and gave me 3 misinterpretations of what they 'thought' it was about. While I thought the answers were cute, I realized Brave story was 100% animation and CG and 0% story.

Story - 5
Brave Story is mostly about Wataru and his adventure into a fantasy world known as Vision. As the synopsis had already mentioned, prior to Wataru entering this world, his own was already on a brink of collapse with his father running off with another woman and his mother falling ill due to the situation. Having heard that he can change his destiny if he completes a certain quest, Wataru decides to take on this quest and that's where his adventure starts. This part of the story I really never cared for, and the way they had presented things I believe was in poor taste anyways. I mean who wants to know that your dad was cheating on your mom at the age of 11? It's like Disney sending subliminal messages for kids not to smoke in Snow White(or else you'll end up 'short' like the seven dwarfs)

Anyways, that's not where the plot-holes and bad pacing start to show up. It's when Wataru enters Vision that really gave me angst. We are introduced to a myriad of citizens from Vision who embark in the journey with Wataru which you can tell there is a story to them that's waiting to be heard and hopefully fulfilled. Yet isn't. I really found that frustrating as it was like watching someone play an RPG and taking on side quests but not completing them as that player heads to the main goal. Another thing I hated(without giving too much of a spoiler) was how they "brushed" everything in the end to give us a happy ending. If I was 10 years old, I wouldn't really have cared about this, but I'm not.

Art & Sound - 7
The art and sound for Brave Story is its saving grace. From studio GONZO, well known for their collaboration with CG in their work, I have to commend how they implemented the world of Vision. The cities were given a European-esque look, and each towns citizens were nicely detailed giving you that feeling of how life is in that world. For a movie that had been created in 2006, Brave Story excels with its beautifully rendered landscapes making some series I had seen in 2010 pale in comparison.

As I mentioned, another saving grace for Brave Story is with its sound. Brave Story had utilized Juno Reactor(performers well known for their music in The Matrix trilogy as well as other anime), to do the score for the movie. This was a plus for BS as the BGM blended naturally with the animation giving you the sense of adventure that was encountered. With the ED "Ketsui no Asa ni" performed by J-pop band Aqua Timez at the end, the OST for Brave Story would make a nice collection for any music enthusiasts.

Characters - 4
This is where it REALLY fell short for me. The characters introduced in Brave Story were one-sided and there wasn't enough profiling to give the characters depth.

First you have Wataru: an 11 year old boy who's world seems to be crumbling due to events rifting between his parents. A very nice sob story indeed, but somehow I just couldn't empathize with him due to that everything seemed to fall in his lap like a stroke of good luck(courtesy of bad storytelling). Then you have his friend(and semi-antagonist for the film) Ashikawa, who he meets at the beginning of the film. Apparently he has gone back and forth from the real world to Vision and is on the same quest like Wataru. Unfortunately this is never explained as the focus is more on Ashikawa's sob story instead. Inconsistencies continue in this fashion for both characters which really became a minus for me.

Then we have the supporting characters who Wataru meets. This is the part that had really frustrated me the most as we are introduced to people like you would in an RPG's side quests; who have their own problems waiting for the hero to help fix and to which unfortunately for them, he doesn't(like I mentioned earlier). Now this could be due to that there wasn't enough time to do these quests as the movies running time was close to stretching on 2 hours, but if that were the case why introduce them at all? For the sake that they were in the adaptation?

Enjoyment - 6
Whilst Brave Story has its faults, this doesn't mean its not entertaining and I believe the movie has met their quota when reaching its targeted audience: kids under 10 who like big bangs and pretty animation. The foundation to which the film provides, gives viewers who are into fantasy and RPG's like Dungeons & Dragons a nostalgic feeling with its presentation, and the breathtaking art and music would get even the harder-to-please kids glued to the screen. Unfortunately for bigger kids like myself, the weak storyline and poor execution just didn't leverage to how good this film could have been which set my score back from an 8 to a 6. I wish I could say good things in this review like those before me, but then I'd be lying to myself.

Overall - 5
The Good - Great animation and CG for a movie that's as old as my son, accompanied with a great soundtrack.
The Bad - Everything else. The DVD would make a great Christmas or birthday present for anyone under 10. Of course, anyone over that age may think you have it in for them.

Brave Story is a really long novel written by Miyabe Miyuki. How long? Over seven hundred pages. What's impressive about it is that the novel has no filler. Everything that happens is important. It's gotten manga and video game adaptations. As well as a movie version. Which brings up the obvious question, how do you turn a novel that long into a not quite two hour film? Even the game version, though it skips and changes a lot to get into the action right away, has a lot more story than that. Let's take a look at Gonzo's version and find out.

Our film opens ... with two kids sneaking into a supposedly haunted house. They get separated and our hero, Wataru, encounters a strange boy and a glowing portal. Roughly thirty seconds later when he's in school the next day, he finds the boy in his class. He returns home to find that his parents are separating and he tries to follow his father and ends up finding the strange boy, Mitsuru, being harassed by bullies. He steps in to help and after a short conversation Mitsuru leaves to go back through the portal. Wataru goes home to find his mom lying still on the floor. So he calls an ambulance. After which he finds and enters the portal himself, having heard that he can make any wish come true. And that's just the first twenty minutes or so. This leads into one of the major things that breaks the film. The pacing is horrendous. It goes from one scene to the next in quick succession while explaining very little about the plot or the world of Vision. You don't have time to acclimate to the situation. Most of the scenes in this don't even last a minute before switching to the next and most of them introduce something new that they don't adequately explain. If you don't already know the story, you're going to be really confused. Another major issue is that the film resorts to a lot of cliches, most of which aren't present in the book and/or game. I thought that the alterations to the story for the game made it a bit cliche, but the film just goes far beyond that and into the realm of the insipid. The film does have a few funny moments, although I don't think they're supposed to actually be funny. The sheer level of stupidity just kind of makes them come off as funny.

Then we have our characters. They're terrible. Let's start with Wataru. In the novel and game he has a character arc, albeit a slightly different one. In the film, he has no development whatsoever. He's a complete moron who cares deeply about his "friend" Mitsuru, even though they've had all of three scenes together and just wants his family back and he continues to be a moron until the last minute of the film when the plot deems it necessary for him to grow up a little. The rest of the characters are mostly incredibly dull. Again, the extremely rushed pacing hurts the film in this area. In the novel they give you reasons to care about Wataru's family and understand him. In this you get one introductory scene to them before his dad scarpers, and it's far too short to serve as an adequate introduction. The only character who retains his personality is Ki-Kima, the most annoying character in the franchise. The worst character assassination happens to Miina. In both the novel and the game, she's a capable girl who's motivated and generally awesome. In this, she's useless baggage who could've been removed entirely without losing anything of value. The only decent character in this is Mitsuru. It's still his weakest incarnation, but he does get some good moments and dialogue.

The art in this is actually pretty nicely done. The world of Vision looks good. The designs of the various peoples within are mostly well done, although I have no idea what they were thinking with the design of Cutt's armour. The monsters look pretty cool, for what little screen time they get. The action sequences fall flat since they tend to start and end within a few minutes or even seconds.

Gonzo did get some good voice actors for this movie. Saito Chiwa in particular. Unfortunately, the performances aren't very good. I don't know if they just weren't trying, I know I wouldn't if I saw the script, or it was the direction. The music is just bad. Particularly the song they use for the film's pointless montage scene.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. This has no yuri.

My final rating for Brave Story is a 3/10. It's a mess of a film. The pacing is dialed up to ludicrous speed. Most of the characters lost their personalities in the river and the cliche level is simply unacceptable. To be fair, this was a very ambitious project given the length of the novel, but even taking that into consideration, this is just bad. If you want exposure to the story done well, read the novel. Play the game, even. But I can't recommend watching the film.