Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011)

I remember this movie during the summer of 2017, I came across a thump nail of this and had a weird creature with too kids in front of it. I don't think this video is still on youtube. It took me about 3 weeks to finally watch this film and it is one of the best animated fantasy films I've seen. Though too me thats not saying that much as theres not that many animated films that are full blown fantasy. I saw this film on September 14th.The film circles around Asuna who goes on an adventure in Agartha the land of the dead, with her mysterious substitute teacher Morisaki who is here to resurrect his dead wife, and a boy named Shun.I watched the first half of the movie being very enjoyed. It doesn't take long for our characters to get to Agartha. One thing I like are the creature designs in Agartha. One of them the Quetzalcoatl magic creatures that are about to die out. Its a weird abstract creature that carries dead souls to heaven. It was the first thing I ever saw this in this movie as it was on the Youtube thumbnail, I didn't notice Shun and Asuna until later. Pros: 1. The creature design. 2. Agartha, its like the Lord of the rings if it went to heaven. 3. The design of the Gate of life of death looks great. It looks like an airship in the day and a giant million eye creature that can ressurect the dead. But for a price. It's like the forest spirit. Human faced goat creature at day, and Nightwalker at night. 4. The action is just fun too watch, especially with the chase scene from the Izoku, and Shun fighting those guards near the end. 5. Other stuff I forgot to mention but will mention later.Cons: 1. Despite what i said above there are some problems some being a bit of the second half of the movie. We got a whole bunch of backstory in this place in about a minuet and it doesn't really amount to anything in the end. This movie became a comic but I don't reed comics or manga. But all that backstory we got we never hear it again at all. 2. Ok this a personal issue with me but to me Asuna looks like she's 10 and she's 15. I'm sorry but that just really bothers me a lot.Conclusion: I like this movie but I felt like this film had more potential with its backstory. But besides this, this is a solid fantasy film but I would really bring little kids too see this movie mostly do too the Izoku. But this film is a solid accomplishment from the films director. Especially from the one who directed Your Name the most successful anime film ever at the box office.7.5 out of 10.

The third feature film from Makoto Shinkai presents the writer-director blending elements of fantasy, sci-fi & romance into another ambitious coming-of-age tale that astonishes on a technical scale yet is marred in the storytelling department by the same issues that plagued his first film.The story of Children Who Chase Lost Voices (also known as Journey to Agartha) follows a young girl who, accompanied by one of her school teachers, embarks on a life-changing journey to a mythical place called Agartha to find her lost friend, only to encounter cruelty & beauty in the world beneath.Written, produced, directed, photographed & edited by Makoto Shinkai (best known for 5 Centimeters per Second & Your Name), the film begins on an interesting note, hinting a sense of mystery from its opening moments, and Agartha is truly a sight to behold but the longer it goes on, the more tedious the journey becomes.Shinkai's imagination is impressive and he does well to translate the storyboarded images on the film canvas, but the slow narration hurts the overall experience as the story overstays its welcome and feels quite overlong. Characters appeared to be intriguing at first but interest in their journey fizzles out over the course of its runtime.The animation is top-notch as expected and Agartha has that otherworldly feel & vibe to it but its never ending exhibition of set pieces becomes tiring after a while. More often than not, they seem like distraction rather than an integral element of the plot. The inspiration behind Agartha is obvious but the events unfolding there aren't always riveting.On an overall scale, Children Who Chase Lost Voices starts on a promising note but fails to keep the interest alive until the end. Its structure is a mess, characters are one-dimensional, and many moments that should've ended up on the editing room floor make it to the final print, thus slowing down its narrative by an extent. It's an extravagant effort from Shinkai but it just isn't as rewarding or satisfying as expected.

This movie has a such wonderful plot which makes me feel like I really hop into the journey with excitement and nervousness. I could really sense the feeling of the adventure that has a combination of bittersweetness, pureness, innocence of friendship, love, loyalty in the movie.The music goes on perfectly throughout the movie. the animation of the characters are really beautiful together with the scenery and the filter. the graphic has a filter that has a calmness in it A worth to watch movie for people who loves adventure fantasy movie with some twists in the story!

I had to force myself through parts of the film that were so blatantly Miyazaki rip offs. Almost every scene contained an obvious element of specific Ghibli films such as the blue crystal (castle in the sky), Shin leaving home (grossly replaying almost the exact scene from Mononoke), and Shun's unoriginal appearance and character that might as well be Howl (howls moving castle) thrown into a different film. The idea and plot line of the film was good but it is horribly lacking originality. Interactions between the main characters were cringeworthy and not well thought out. The only aspect of this film that I thoroughly enjoyed were the actions scenes like the bear fight in the beginning and the grey skeleton-esque creatures, and I usually prefer the slower scenes in anime.