Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) Movie Review

116 Min

Genre: Animation | Adventure | Drama

Director & Writer: Makoto Shinkai

Plot: A coming of age story involving young love and a mysterious music, coming from a crystal radio left as a memento by an absent father, that leads a young heroine deep into a hidden world.

This is definitely Mokto Shinkai attempt at making a Studio Ghibli film, from animation wise as well as story. Surprisingly enough this is one of my favorite movies of his just for how much it feels the most like an actually movie. Most of his films tend to have a short film feel to them and this was the first one to actually feel like it went bigger and grander than any other of his films.

Animation - A

The movie definitely captures the art style of a studio Ghibli movie, but it still retains a lot of what makes Mokoto Shinkai movies look so fantastic. Every shot in the movie is basically a piece of art. Everything is bright and color and that really compliments the world that this film sets up. The world of Agartha is expansive and has a lot to explore. Which helps out on the journey the characters go on.

Story - B

The Story of Children Who Chase Lost Voices is relatively simple. Its basically a get from point A to point B plot but that isn't a bad thing. Because the plot is simple it is made up completely in the journey to get to Point B.

The way Agartha is set up is great and really gets you invested for the journey and the world.  

Characters - B

My main problem with the characters is that we don't really get any arc out of anyone except for Mr. Morisaki, even with Asuna being out main protagonist of the story. For the most part Asuna is pretty static throughout the whole movie and even Shin is pretty static as well not having any emotion to knowing about his brother's death.

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