Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru

Night on the Galactic Railroad, or Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru, may be based on a children's book, but it's definitely a movie anyone can enjoy. To be completely honest, I think I would've been seriously scared had I watched this when I was younger - it's quite creepy at times. Almost all characters in NotGR are cats with human proportions for some reason. I don't know if this was the case in the original book, but I never felt like it mattered, actually. Judging from the synopsis, it was because the animators were lazy, and that may've been the case for all I know.

The story ... starts off on an Italian-esque countryside, on the day of the so called Centaurus Festival. We are introduced to the movie's main character, a blue cat named Giovanni, who apparently is being bullied because of his father's line of work (smuggler) and is living together with his sister and sickly mother. When the night of the festival draws near, he is once again ostracized by the other kids - or should I say kittens? - and runs up on a hill from which he gazes up on the starry sky with awe. Suddenly, a flash of light appears and with it a magnificient train, which he boards together with his only friend Campanella, who was following him up the hill. Together they embark on a compelling journey as the train moves across the Milky Way.

The first thirty or so minutes of the movie are horribly slow, but after the characters have boarded the train, the pacing is screwed up a notch or two.

With the movie being made in 1985, it's no surprise that its animation is dated. Especially the characters look very simple, without much detail to them. On the other hand, the sceneries the two cats encounter during their journey are highly imaginitive; a walnut-littered excavation site of some kind of gigantic dinosaur skeleton; an immense field of corn with an unsuspended pendulum swinging in the blue sky above. And the like. I don't want to spoil too much, but there are some really interesting vistas to be seen. Night on the Galactic Railroad might not be as technically competent as contemporary Ghibli movies, but it certainly has got heart.

Cats and even some humans board the train and disappear into thin air as suddenly as they came, lending the movie an even more mysterious atmosphere. There aren't any deep personalities to be found here, though, but I doesn't matter - it's the journey and the journey alone that is the core of this movie and it's interesting enough.

Night on the Galactic Railroad features mostly classical music. Among the tracks we find the New World Sympony and Halleluja Chorus for example. Looking at the latter of those two, it's not too surprising that there are some Christian elements incorporated into the story more or less obviously, like it or not. Putting that aside, the music fits the mood most of the time, but there are some creepy, more ambient tunes that seem sort of misplaced in their context. Which in a way only serves to make the atmosphere even more creepy.

So, to summarize, this movie was quite a trip. It's very slow-paced in the beginning, but if you get past the first boring thirty minutes, you're in for an experience unlike any other.

I'm really in two minds on what to make of "Night on the Galactic Railroad". On one hand it seems to be quite a subtle anime with deep and hidden meanings, on the other hand it's so booooriiiiing. One thing I am sure of though, is that in terms of effective audience targeting, this anime badly misses its mark. It's meant to be for children, but it'll be a miracle to find some that can actually sit out the whole film and absorb some of its meanings. For one thing the pacing is far too slow for children, and for another it's far too incoherent. ... In fact, even I had trouble keeping concentration, especially during the first half. My mind would often start wandering and then I'd suddenly realise that the scene's completely changed without me noticing, which is NOT a good sign. I couldn't be arsed to rewind either cos it just didn't seem to be worth it. The rather outdated production doesn't really help. Though the background music itself is really good, it's often overly quiet, which can make the film feel quite flat at times. The Second half of the film made me perk up, especially with the incident involving the ship. I think it was then that I realised that there's a lot more to this anime than meets the eye. Thinking back on it, perhaps other scenes such as the bird hunting one that seemed so pointless at the time actually has hidden meanings as well. Damned if I know what they are though.

There's a great twist at the end that I really didn't see coming - maybe it's 'cos I can be a bit dense when it comes to predicting twists. I especially like the way the main character Giovanni held on to the milk he was taking to his mother despite him getting a big shock. There is no cliched smashing of the bottle, and I thought that was a nice touch. The strong ending made me feel I really need to re-watch it at some point in order to understand the movie better... but the dead slow pacing is putting me off re-watching it any time in the near future.

To sum up: An overly long, boring anime but with a deeper story full of religeous themes under its yawn inducing exterior. I find it puzzling that it has been made into a two hour film when it would have fared far better as a one and a half hour one with which the pacing would have been less painful.

“Night on the Galactic Railroad” is what happens when You have a hell of a trip after a bunch of drugs You took to deal with a really, Really tough day.

One night a boy named Giovanni finds himself on a very unique train. He doesn’t really have any recollection of getting a ticket. On the train he finds his (probably only) friend - Campanella. Together they travel through the galaxy on the way to the edge of the universe. During the ride they meet a bunch of people who have different takes on life and witness a lot of things that would make You question ... Your sanity on a normal day, and develop their relationship further.
The longer the ride goes the more it is obvious that Giovanni is a bit special. Something that is shown by a unique ticket he possesses. A ticket so unique that even a passenger who seems to have a lot of experience with the galactic train, never saw it before.
I know this description is a bit dry but I really want to avoid spoilers.

When it comes to Giovanni and Campanella themselves there isn’t much to say. They are pretty much just proxies for the viewers. The only things that we know is that Giovanni doesn’t have many friends, is bullied because of his father and takes care of his mother. Campanella on the other hand is Giovanni's only friend, is stoic and cares about Giovanni. For a story such as this it is a bit on the low info side and it is to the detriment of the drama. But given the story is aimed at children I guess I can live with it.

While not as mindfucking as “Angel's Egg” and being pretty heavy handed with its metaphors it is still a very atmospheric movie with a pretty universal message. Both Giovanni and Campanella, despite travelling on the same train don’t witness all the same things and there is a good reason for that that is revealed towards the end but You can easily figure it out sooner.

The movie has a lot of scenes that are there just to build the drama and a lot of them are longer than they need to be. I can’t really get mad about that, a lot of movies from the 80s have scenes like that so it’s obviously a product of the times. That said, I do understand why some people think the movie is slow. Up until the halfway point the movie takes its time and builds the universe of the train. The thing that bugged me for a long time is that there are no clear rules to the train. We see things that could be interpreted as memories, hopes and even just the daily grind. It does get a little clearer towards the end but You never get the full picture.

I really don’t want to spoil anything and talking about the plot would be mostly spoilers so…
Despite being old with dated animation (the music is still wonderful) it’s a very solid movie. Being from 1985 I understand that not everyone would be willing or able to sit through it but I encourage You to do just that. You might be surprised by what You’ll find.

To be known: I watched the dub version on 360p.

Regardless of watching this movie in 360p, the animation seemed to be astounding and dreamy. If I watched this movie on mute with no subtitles, the experience could have been a lot better.

The things I despised most were the sound and character. The music was off putting. The dialogue was vague and awkward. This could have been because I watched the dubbed version, but I would rather not watch this movie again to find out. Translation is a tricky thing for sure, but this was awful. Everything is so rigid and with no flow ... when the characters talk to each other.

Everything in this movie is spacey and rigid. If I had watched this as a child, I would have been creeped out. The two main characters and their friends are okay character wise, they're on the superficial side but everyone else seems to be a last minute addition to the movie.

At one point I fell asleep during the movie, about 30 minutes in. I am unsure if my nightmare was influenced by this movie, but something tells me it was...Also I honestly skipped through the movie. I got most of what was needed to understand what was going on, so I did not miss anything when I skipped scenes.

I am having trouble thinking of things I liked about the movie. I originally watched this because I like cats, and I like stars... The art was really good. Kudos to the animation team.

Overall enjoyment was a 5.

I wish I could say I enjoyed it and appreciate it for the art it surely is, I really wanted to like it. But I ended up being disappointed.
First of all, the whole movie (even the everyday life scenes) have a strange and uncanny feeling to them, and often even a creepy one. I heard many people liked the mysterious atmosphere, but to me it was kind of off-putting.
I also think the pace of the movie is too slow, at least for me. It was kind of boring for a decent amount of time.
But my main issue with the movie is that I ... didn't get most of the scenes in the railroad. They were just so weird - but (in my opinion) not an interesting or exciting kind of weird, but just a strange, off-putting one. The movie leaves me very frustrated because I can't understand it. I don't know if there is anything to understand, the scenes are probably just supposed to be creative and dreamy. But as I said, I found most of them pretty boring and alienating.
The artstyle... I don't know. It's not bad, it has very pretty scenes, but there was also something putting me off again. The main characters have the same expression most of the time: a little surprised, but not very emotional.
I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll put it that way: There is a character with two kids who came from a ship, and he did a specific thing, that everyone seems to be okay with or even think it's good. I find the moral to be problematic in this scene.
Finally, a positive point: I liked the ending and when you're realizing the real purpose of this railroad.


So, this movie definitely made me think about it a lot. But there is still the frustration about me not understanding the scenes. It wasn't a bad movie and people who like more artistic and creative movies might like it. But the events weren't very interesting to me and it was kind of off-putting. It's a pity.

Just finished this to say: Huh. Not Huh? Huh.

This was Non-Sequitur the movie. Not much would happen, but at the same time, I would end up asking "How did we get here? What are they talking about? How does that relate to what happened before this?" Mixed feelings is what's appropriate for me, did I dislike it? Not, really, it was cute enough. Do I like it enough to potentially watch it again? Eh, I doubt it. Though, I still don't know if it's going to be one of those movies that I'll forget after a day or it's going to randomly pop in ... my head making me question "wait, there's a fake Heaven and a real Heaven? Were those random humans on the Titanic? Did the Titanic victims just go to fake Heaven?" And I could go on and on about all of the questions and observations within this film. It hit me now--this was exactly like what you experience in a dream--which works with this movie actually.

I wouldn't call the main characters cardboard, per se, there are little mannerisms in their personality that keep them from that area. Subdued and reserved sounds right to me when describing them. It doesn't mean that you're not going to be watching the two mains with the same quiet expression for the majority of it. And is this a fun popcorn flick, I ate popcorn, but I could see how this film would be stupid boring for some. You take a good chunk of time of slow "slice of life" before getting to the galaxy train bit and once you're there...you're definitely getting plenty of that train ride. So yeah, your mileage may vary a lot. I thought it was /cute/ (you know that cute when you finish an obvious 'very much for kids' movie that you saw with a younger family member), and I was perplexed enough to keep watching and wondering what the heck was going on or what was going to happen next.