TL;DR Animation's decent, adaptation is B. S.
After witnessing the travesty that is Adipurush, I kinda went down a rabbit hole and ended up discovering this film. The cross between Japan's anime and India's Ramayan sounded surreal...and then I watched it. Here's my take.
The animation is much higher-quality than I initially expected, though at times it feels more like TV animation than full-fledged movie animation. For the most part, it's a good marriage between the Japanese anime style and the typical Indian portrayals, breathing life into the visuals. I'm not a fan of the cartoonification of the rakshasa, which look like silly humanoid bat things. I also feel that they play around too much with the whole "multiple arms/heads" concept, which is supposed to by symbolic, not an actual physical thing. Though, the anime interpretation of the vaanaras and Shri Hanuman is really good!
The story leaves something to be desired, as well. An entire epic needed to be crammed into 2 hours, so it's understandable that a lot of details had to be left out; but in comparison to the Ramayan show by Ramanand Sagar, the story in this film feels totally watered-down. Every important event only lasts about 30 seconds. It seems like they prioritized action scenes over meaningful dialogue; so the story is reduced to a nice little fairytale, deprived of the spiritual and moral significance of every character's every action. And the scenes near the end of the movie, leading up to Raavan's demise, are entirely altered from the scripture!
Overall, it seems like a fine entertainer for kids. The fusion between a Hindu epic and Japanese anime would almost be a dream come true, if it weren't for the extensive creative liberties and the awkward pacing. It feels less like they wanted to convey the story accurately, and more like they wanted to make something entertaining; it seems like they treated it like ancient Greek or Roman mythology, something that they could just pull any random details from and create any context they wanted, thereby spoiling the wisdom and depth of the original text. But still, it's a work as unique in the world as the original text itself, which certainly counts for something, right?
One thing I would highly recommend, though, is to NOT listen to the god-awful English dub-the English voice acting is so beyond garbage, that it will literally ruin your experience. Definitely look for a Hindi version with subtitles instead!
After witnessing the travesty that is Adipurush, I kinda went down a rabbit hole and ended up discovering this film. The cross between Japan's anime and India's Ramayan sounded surreal...and then I watched it. Here's my take.
The animation is much higher-quality than I initially expected, though at times it feels more like TV animation than full-fledged movie animation. For the most part, it's a good marriage between the Japanese anime style and the typical Indian portrayals, breathing life into the visuals. I'm not a fan of the cartoonification of the rakshasa, which look like silly humanoid bat things. I also feel that they play around too much with the whole "multiple arms/heads" concept, which is supposed to by symbolic, not an actual physical thing. Though, the anime interpretation of the vaanaras and Shri Hanuman is really good!
The story leaves something to be desired, as well. An entire epic needed to be crammed into 2 hours, so it's understandable that a lot of details had to be left out; but in comparison to the Ramayan show by Ramanand Sagar, the story in this film feels totally watered-down. Every important event only lasts about 30 seconds. It seems like they prioritized action scenes over meaningful dialogue; so the story is reduced to a nice little fairytale, deprived of the spiritual and moral significance of every character's every action. And the scenes near the end of the movie, leading up to Raavan's demise, are entirely altered from the scripture!
Overall, it seems like a fine entertainer for kids. The fusion between a Hindu epic and Japanese anime would almost be a dream come true, if it weren't for the extensive creative liberties and the awkward pacing. It feels less like they wanted to convey the story accurately, and more like they wanted to make something entertaining; it seems like they treated it like ancient Greek or Roman mythology, something that they could just pull any random details from and create any context they wanted, thereby spoiling the wisdom and depth of the original text. But still, it's a work as unique in the world as the original text itself, which certainly counts for something, right?
One thing I would highly recommend, though, is to NOT listen to the god-awful English dub-the English voice acting is so beyond garbage, that it will literally ruin your experience. Definitely look for a Hindi version with subtitles instead!