Ranked #982

Brave Story

This movie is quite special. Like many other Anime, movies in particular; there is a certain style and idea behind every scene and occurrence. Which obviously also applies to this movie. However, unlike many other Anime movies; it's so darn cute and cuddly. The movie isn't girly; and it has a few occurrences in between that aren't considered cute at all; but tend more towards sad.

But still, I can't help but say this movie was a cute one. A young boy striving forward. While not particularly being talented or smart; rather much more average. He goes into a different world to there fulfill his wish.

On the road towards his goal he meets a lot of characters; which contains of different characters all in one. You see, almost all the characters he meet are animals, or well, look sort of like a animal.
Which is also one of the reasons I found this movie so cute. And I'm sure that many besides me who also have seen this movie thought the same. There's the cute kitty, a big funny lizard and more. All in all, an interesting cast indeed. Especially like able if you enjoy seeing animals in Anime.

The movie is more than just a bunch of animals in a fantasy world; which, I forgot to mention, is a beautifully animated and quite happy world you only see in dreams.

Music and sounds are by far the best this movie has to offer. The story is already intriguing and captures your thoughts perfectly fine; the music however adds up to it and makes it even more incredible.

Besides the animations, story, sounds, characters and all of that being quite awesome and impressive. I can honestly say this movie was definitely worthwhile and enjoyable for anyone with time to spare.

The style used in the movie matches the story and just like the music; adds up to it. It's quite a happy story and doesn't leaves much to complaint about.

To be honest, there's not much more to be told. Now it's your time, your time to go and see for yourself and be enchanted by this world. Too bad I was only enchanted for a mere one hour and fifty two minutes. read more

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. read more