I'm a huge fan of Ghibli (I even have a Princess Mononoke tattoo to show).
I have to say, this movie left me wanting more.
The beginning of the movie feels slower (and mostly coherent) but slowly devolves into a beautiful collage of animation and music. Generally, it feels like the movie is formed as a sampler of the rest of Ghibli, pulling ideas and art from other titles like Spirited Away, Howl's, and Mononoke.
By the time the story comes together in a somewhat haphazard manner, you're pretty much at the end of the movie, and the deep ideas that were to be conveyed had no time to develop. There are various decisions made by the protagonists that lack rhyme or reason because everything critical was saved for the end. I imagine if you watch the movie another 2-3 more times you might catch onto what Miyazaki was intending, but it was certainly lost in a singular conventional theatre style viewing.
Is it worth watching simply based on art and music? In my opinion, yes, but if you're expecting a Ghibli level movie, you might be disappointed.
I have to say, this movie left me wanting more.
The beginning of the movie feels slower (and mostly coherent) but slowly devolves into a beautiful collage of animation and music. Generally, it feels like the movie is formed as a sampler of the rest of Ghibli, pulling ideas and art from other titles like Spirited Away, Howl's, and Mononoke.
By the time the story comes together in a somewhat haphazard manner, you're pretty much at the end of the movie, and the deep ideas that were to be conveyed had no time to develop. There are various decisions made by the protagonists that lack rhyme or reason because everything critical was saved for the end. I imagine if you watch the movie another 2-3 more times you might catch onto what Miyazaki was intending, but it was certainly lost in a singular conventional theatre style viewing.
Is it worth watching simply based on art and music? In my opinion, yes, but if you're expecting a Ghibli level movie, you might be disappointed.