Slight spoilers about the first 10 minutes ahead.
All in all, the movie is good. If only the beautiful art was matched by the clustered story...
What I noticed is, this movie is way too dark for kids under, say, 10. It is very dark and the moral lessons are a bit too strong for the comfort of 5 years old (of whom at least half a dozen were crying hard in the theater I went by the middle of the movie). Also, there's a character who gets way too much attention just so you don't think of her as evil after a pretty grim act from her, so the movie can be villain-free (alright, there IS one villain, but by the end the villains feels much unnecessary, really). Ultimately, at least they end up actually using the apparently random wacky character instead of just leaving it around to be bizarre (a salad genie, though? Really?), like in, say, Dreamworks animations.
Interesting enough, what many consider to be the problem of the movie is the aspect that pleased me the most. In that the movie has no pace. By that I mean, the story just goes, and in its grimmest moments the pace is about the same as its happiest ones. The movie kicks off with an entire kingdom going to a dark season because soup (the kingdom's favorite, you see) is banned, along with rats (not as liked, no), because the king is glooming over the death of his queen, just because a single visiting rat wanted to smell better the soup served to the royals. Yeah... And it all just happens. Before you know it, the queen is dead. During a comic chase scene between the castle guards and said rat. And at least for me, that's awesome! Because the air won't suddenly become heavier just because something grim is about to happen, nor the other way around. Unfortunately, it seems accidental, since the air do get dark, but only after the characters realizing the death of the queen, not before it is about to happen so the audience knows something bad is about to happen, so the death actually comes as a shock (which, again, is terrible on the youngsters...).
This extends until the end, with the epilogue not looking like an epilogue at all, you feel like the story could just go on if wasn't for the fact that it was, in fact, over.
Also, the movie is unable to make strong scenes. When a character is angry, or sad, or something else, the scenes are just there for you to watch. (Well... not entirely true. The scenes of the king playing his lute alone in a cold gray room are pretty strong, but that's about it).
Pre-teens might enjoy the movie more, even tough they'll probably be expecting more action and jokes from it, but an adult can watch it without expecting it to be a waste of time.
All in all, the movie is good. If only the beautiful art was matched by the clustered story...
What I noticed is, this movie is way too dark for kids under, say, 10. It is very dark and the moral lessons are a bit too strong for the comfort of 5 years old (of whom at least half a dozen were crying hard in the theater I went by the middle of the movie). Also, there's a character who gets way too much attention just so you don't think of her as evil after a pretty grim act from her, so the movie can be villain-free (alright, there IS one villain, but by the end the villains feels much unnecessary, really). Ultimately, at least they end up actually using the apparently random wacky character instead of just leaving it around to be bizarre (a salad genie, though? Really?), like in, say, Dreamworks animations.
Interesting enough, what many consider to be the problem of the movie is the aspect that pleased me the most. In that the movie has no pace. By that I mean, the story just goes, and in its grimmest moments the pace is about the same as its happiest ones. The movie kicks off with an entire kingdom going to a dark season because soup (the kingdom's favorite, you see) is banned, along with rats (not as liked, no), because the king is glooming over the death of his queen, just because a single visiting rat wanted to smell better the soup served to the royals. Yeah... And it all just happens. Before you know it, the queen is dead. During a comic chase scene between the castle guards and said rat. And at least for me, that's awesome! Because the air won't suddenly become heavier just because something grim is about to happen, nor the other way around. Unfortunately, it seems accidental, since the air do get dark, but only after the characters realizing the death of the queen, not before it is about to happen so the audience knows something bad is about to happen, so the death actually comes as a shock (which, again, is terrible on the youngsters...).
This extends until the end, with the epilogue not looking like an epilogue at all, you feel like the story could just go on if wasn't for the fact that it was, in fact, over.
Also, the movie is unable to make strong scenes. When a character is angry, or sad, or something else, the scenes are just there for you to watch. (Well... not entirely true. The scenes of the king playing his lute alone in a cold gray room are pretty strong, but that's about it).
Pre-teens might enjoy the movie more, even tough they'll probably be expecting more action and jokes from it, but an adult can watch it without expecting it to be a waste of time.