The basic trouble with _Momo_ is that it executes well on *none* of these aspects. Momo herself is an ultra-bland character who cannot stand any comparison with Ghibli heroines like Sen or Shizuku. The island setting is woefully underused throughout the movie (except for the pig-chasing scene). The architecture and backgrounds are accurate but again, bland. The music is unmemorable and cannot be commented on. The trio of supernatural characters are more irritating than they are ever interesting or endearing and I wished that almost all of their scenes didn't exist as the humor is nonexistent. The animation is adequate but again bland, except for whoever worked on the pig-chasing scene and the pulsating spirits at the shrine (who stand out as the most visually interesting aspect of the movie, and give the later bridge scene its interest). And the plot...
The plot has a truly outrageous reliance on cliches - from the guilt of Momo telling her father to leave right before his accidental death to her mother conveniently developing Anime Coughing Sickness (yes, really! they really had the chutzpah to use that cliche!) to endlessly predictable scenes (serious question: in the mirror-breaking scene, is there anyone who from the first cut didn't know that that mirror was going to break?) to scenes so illogical that the movie can't even depict the events (why on earth would a doctor agree to cross the bridge at the end in the middle of a typhoon...? don't ask _Momo_, it just cuts straight from getting across to the happily-ever-after). It compounds these scenes with a lack of imagination (no use of the "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons" is just criminal) and in the ending where it commits the greatest of sins for this kind of movie by forcing a heavy-handed conclusion and collapsing the border of reality/imagination. It has the bad taste of, like pornography, insisting on showing you everything. I could have maybe tolerated all the rest of it and considered it mediocre but still watchable far down the list after the Ghibli movies, _Wolf Children_, etc, but that choice of ending is a final kick in the nuts and insult to everyone who watches it.
