A good movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was Hayao Miyazaki's last directorial effort and since it was another critical success, I was really eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, even though I did like it, I'm afraid it didn't really impress me that much after all. In fact, when I think about it, except for 'Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi' which might be the best animated feature ever made, that's actually what I felt with all Miyazaki's movies after all. Sure, as expected, the hand-drawn animation was once again just amazing and only therefore it is worth watching the damned thing. My favorite part was when the main character was rushing through the fire trying to reach his mother which was just so evocative. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I never really cared enough about the story and/or the characters involved. I mean, as far as I was concerned, it all seemed to be some rather basic Miyazaki narrative tropes after all. Indeed, it was dealing with a young character moving to a new unknown place to live and this main character was apparently struggling with his parents negligence and/or absence but these are some recurring themes that keep coming back again and again in his work. As a result, this final movie didn't seem to tackle anything really new. Concerning this fantasy world in which the main character entered at some point, to be honest, I'm afraid I lost grip on it almost immediately. I mean, where did he end up to? Who were all these strange people and creatures? What the hell was going on? Above all, and that was the main issue, did I really care? Not really, I'm afraid. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn't really work for me, it was still an intriguing animated feature and it is definitely worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Hayao Miyazaki's work.

7/10