Santa Company: Manatsu no Merry Christmas

story- 4
while I love the message, the story itself is not very well executed, I think the biggest limiting factor was the 30 minute run times, due to this they could not have the proper setup needed in order to establish needed plot points. Additionally for being a 30-minute show, the begging was far to slow, it felt like 80% of the episode was just an introduction
Art-6
while there are some problems with CGI it is overall pretty fine and I liked the color pallet,
sound-8
easy the best part of the show, the sound design and music was actually very good and fit the atmosphere
Character-5
the ... charters felt uninspired and dull, nothing really unique, but this is not there fault once again it is hard to make an interesting Charactershow out in a 30 minute short
Enjoyment-4
I saw myself watching the timer the entire time almost witching it would be over, but there are some moments that are pretty good and I enjoyed
Overall-5
I think the idea was good, and I loved the message but the execution was pretty bad

Santa Company, at least this version, does a pretty mediocre job of telling a story with an environmental message for kids. I know there's another short film and a full-length movie from a few years ago, but as I haven't seen those, I'm just going to judge this on its own.

There are going to be slight spoilers from here on out, but since it's a 30-minute short film... I hope it's not too inconvenient.

Story - 4

Although this is a PG film, definitely meant for kids, I feel like the story was still really underdeveloped. Kids don't necessarily need super complex stories, especially if ... the focus is the message rather than the characters' development, but I do think this could've been better. There's no motivation behind what the characters do, at least no good motivation. Mint wants to be as good as her brother/live up to Panal (I think), Noah wants to clean up to prevent animals from dying like his pet(???) whale did, but these are all motivations that are dropped more than halfway through the film and without further elaboration. Also, the reveal of the trash dragon Mook was quite strange. The only other time we hear about him is when the teacher from the beginning says that Mint was working on an assignment about "Mook, Santa's enemy," and even then that's all we hear about it.

Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but I feel like there could've been something more coherent for this film.

Art - 9

I think the art style is super cute and the color design is awesome. The main cast certainly look unique without being gaudy. One point off for the CGI though. It wasn't bad, just... strange.

Sound - 9

Sound design was pretty good. I don't usually listen very hard for sound design, but nothing sounded bad to me. The voice actors are all also really incredible. So, a 9.

Character - 5

Like I said in the story section, the characters just didn't feel fleshed out in any way. They were all pretty one-dimensional. They don't have to be super complex if they're just for a short environmental story, but I wish there was more of a sense of their goals and motivations. Or some kind of change in their characters...

Enjoyment - 7

Despite all of the flaws in the characters/story, it was still kind of fun to watch. It was visually pleasing and the music during the credits was definitely really nice.

Overall - 5

I think the message behind the short film is a great one. We should all do our part in keeping the world, especially the oceans, clean and not contributing to the large amounts of litter out there. I admire the team's efforts to make an entertaining film meant to entertain and educate the public about this issue. I just think audiences would enjoy it more or take it more seriously if there was some more work put into the story so that it doesn't seem so heavy-handed.

I really like the concept, I just wish there could've been a better product for such an interesting idea and such an important issue.

I think it's a good idea to spread awareness about the plastics and trash that contaminated the sea and affecting marine animals. I really wish the anime would be more realistic, based on reality lives than just a fantasy because, in reality, it is really hard to tell people to not littering the ocean.
You can't just tell people "hey the sea is polluted and marine animals are dying we have to stop this" and then they just agree and clean the oceans. In reality, there are many people who are lazy to put trash in to the bin or just put it in their pocket ... or their bag if there is no bin. They literally throw trash like they throw rocks because they are too lazy to find a bin or they don't want their pocket or bag to be dirty. And there are many people who have their stupid reasons.
So, the good thing about this movie is only animation, and others. I hate the pastel colors, they burn my eyes. I really wish the story is more realistic.

Not going into details here because just from looking at it, you can probably already tell about which way it's heading. I'll say that the animation was particularly good, the main point and theme about this show was suppose to be an educational short movie about why littering is bad and it did okay in that department I guess so you can't really fault the plot for that and expect insane plot and character development. Although being an educational purposed film, it did have that anime feel in it and wasn't straight forward, throwing in some little plot and characters in there for the fun ... of it. I enjoyed the 28 minutes it aired and considering it was a low budget short movie where I only found it by MyAnimeList ad banner, it did what it is suppose to do pretty decently I guess.