linda.kunze - 2015-11-13 16:44:53

The animation quality was high, there were lots of cinematic scenes, and the early part of the movie was able to build up a bit of intrigue.  But the story really fell short after that.  I remember thinking how long the movie felt, noticing the overly dramatic musical score (something I almost never pay attention to), and thinking over and over again that I was watching something that wished very badly that it was a Studio Ghibli film, but was not.
I think the biggest issue with the film was the underdeveloped characters and the cramped storyline.  It didn't feel quite like being swept away on an adventure, but rather more like being swept through an adventure much too fast.  The story probably would have fit better in a full-season TV series.

simone.abbott - 2015-07-18 21:30:02

This movie follows a young girl named Asuna Watase was forced to grow up very quickly to help out her mother after the loss of her father, she spends her days listening to music at her clubhouse from a crystal radio her father gave her. Little did she know this music was coming from another world called Agartha which is in history as the underworld. There are many people searching for this place for years and years because of riches this land has rumored in history things like eternal life and the ability to bring people back to life. So after the loss of Asuna friend Shun she ventures to the land of Agartha to bring back Shun by following his brother Shin along with her substitute teacher search who is a part of the Arch Angels a group of people in search of Agartha. His wish is to find this land to be able to bring his wife back from the dead. Through this movie you see the hardships they must face to make there dreams come true and you learn maybe there dreams aren't the same as what they once had.

lavon.leuschke - 2013-11-02 17:49:06

It was worth the watch, but you could see it was inspired from a few things. What I got from it was Fullmetal Alchemist, Princess Mononoke & Laputa Castle in the sky. That's not a bad thing but it's not a masterpiece. Defiantly worth checking out if you have seen other films from Makoto Shinkai or have watched all Studio Ghibli movies and trying something new. If it's cheap then I say it's worth the purchase.

alexandro44 - 2013-07-01 11:37:55

Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo, or otherwise known as Children who Chase Lost voices showed plenty promise from art and trailer alone, yet failed to deliver, miserably. After all, artwork and animation can only account for so much, right?

Exceptional art is no excuse for poor writing and pacing; and if there is any other film that embodies this statement, Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo would fit this to a T. The story starts off with our main (and only) protagonist, Asuna Watase, a responsible and well-behaved young girl who deliberately tackles on an expedition that thrusts her into a colorful world filled to the brim with detail, breathtaking scenery, and original creatures. But at what cost? For what, exactly? You may find yourself asking yourself this question many times throughout the story. But I digress, onto the next paragraph.

So with so much promise, where did it all go wrong? Transitioning of the developmental phases (if you can even call it that), are excruciatingly and poorly written. A majority of the time, the story is so lopsided and one dimensional that you fail to even notice or remember that there was a premise in the first place. Asuna goes on a pilgrimage, monsters and creatures that inhabit the world become an obstruction in her travels, and above all else, it fails to unveil us anything of great structural significance.

For a show that is so substantial in its artwork and detail, it sure does lack subtlety and modesty. With each transition of the plot, it does this rather bluntly and callously. You become focused on one thing, and then it throws you into a completely different direction that ignores why and what just happened.

Okay, so let's try to break things down a bit. (For spoiler reasons, I'll try not to talk about crucial plot components) Early on in the story, Asuna meets a young boy (Shun) who saves her from a behemoth-like creature that happens to derive from the same land as him. Not too long after having saved Asuna, they decide to meet later the next day, and then part ways. Shun explains to her that he resides from a mystical land called Agartha, and then after all things being said and feelings conveniently conveyed, they part, once again. In the next several scenes, it depicts Shun as rather physically ill and then something critical occurs. This may or may not happen to directly (or indirectly) contribute towards Asuna’s whim of a pilgrimage. The only gripe about this particular deduction is that not even an iota of reference was, well, referenced. After this wayward (but crucial) trigger of events, everything starts going downhill. As stated before, this poorly written script fails to deliver anything of integral structure that can help remedy its horribly paced and frequently miscued transitions.

Now we move onto character development and soundtrack. Character development, in retrospect, is so barren and half-assed that it's pitiful. The only positive affinity for the 'development' is how likable Asuna is, and that's about it. She doesn't necessarily grow in terms of depth; rather, her clout just expands because she goes through these events. The other (side) characters are just so poorly written that it's frustrating at times. At some points, it's completely clear as to how they'll react, and then in another (or right after), they completely divulge into a different personality that wasn't hinted at all in the beginning; no references, no backstory, no nothing. For such a small cast, you would expect a greater and possible intense set of personalities, don't you think? Now soundtrack, as well, was only subpar and mediocre at best. I know it sounds like I'm trying extremely hard to depreciate this film, but that is far from the truth. The audio that was played throughout the entirety of the film, more often than not, felt like genuine and progressive miscues. Songs were played rather constantly (albeit different songs), and felt sincerely misplaced. At times, a song would play and you could honestly make the question of: "why is this playing?" or "why has this song been playing for so long?" That it just becomes abhorrently redundant. The only positive thing about it is that for such a long movie, it at the very least, showers you with different OSTs.

All things said, the only real thing that Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo has going for it is its art and level of detail. The creatures that were created were admirable and even charming. Superior in terms of etherealness, Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo isn't afraid to display how romantic it is in terms of art. Unfortunately, art alone cannot save a poorly written film. Imagine trying to take the perfect photograph. You are given the perfect backdrop, timing, and lighting; yet lack the right amount of tools to do so. That's just what it just so happens to be, amateur; given the circumstances and situation.

If you've a taste for all things abstract and pragmatically contradicting, then this movie is for you. But if you're one to pick apart the pieces and analytically move on within a series/film, then I would stay away.

predovic.myles - 2013-05-22 09:19:55

The story is about Asuna, basically the female lead from every single Ghibli movie ever, a bit of a loner girl who spends her time sitting on rocky outcrops listening to her makeshift crystal radio. One day she is attacked by a monster, who got lost on his way to a Princess Mononoke audition, but is saved by Shun, who is basically the pretty boy male lead from half of every single Ghibli movie ever (don't worry, the other half of the pretty boy male lead is role is taken up by Shun's younger brother). But then Stuff Happens that I don't want to spoil, so Asuna has to travel to the magical land of Agartha with her mysterious substitute teacher, who is basically the villain from every single Ghibli movie...wait, actually he's not. He's more nuanced than that, and was far and away my favourite character of the movie.I'm sure the clever ones amongst you must have caught on by now that this movie is rather derivitave. Yes the movie takes many cues from Ghibli flicks, particularly Laputa which Shinkai has admitted to being a big fan of, but it plays around with the formula in enough new and interesting ways to stand out from the pack. Asuna, our female lead, does start out as rather irritatingly perfect, but as the movie goes on her loneliness and fears begin to come more to the surface. Plus it does this without ever being in your face about it. Yes, the characters sometimes have to point out the direction their character’s development is going in, such as when Asuna admits to her substitute teacher acting a bit like her father, but it flows well with the dialogue and doesn't feel the need to retread these same points over and over again.Then there's the substitute teacher, Morisaki, who I've already eluded to as being my favourite characte. He starts off appearing like he's going to be the standard deluded villain, intent on destroying all in his path to get to his goal. This is sort of what he is, but his reasoning is sympathetic and he doesn't act pointlessly evil for the sake of things. He's quick to draw his gun, but it's for his own safety and not because he just likes shooting things. His reasoning for going into Agartha makes him sympathetic too, rather than just being power-hungry or driven by sheer greed. But what makes him great is he also brings out the best in Asuna, elevating her to an interesting character in their own right. As the two travel through Agartha, they strike up a rapport like that of father and daughter, which was very fitting given what the two of them had lost in their lives. They became the family neither of them ever had and, while he was often harsh to Asuna, there was still the strong sense that Morisaki grew to care for her immensely. He's a human character with real flaws, as was Asuna, and their relationship was the real highlight of the movie.Animation-wise, the movie is stunning. OK, this is still Shinkai, and his tendency to focus on clouds remains completely baffling, but the world of Agartha is beautiful. It's essentially the same as earth, but there's enough touches here and there to make it seem alien. Morisaki and Asuna travelling through the countryside had this almost Lord of the Rings feel to it. The world can feel a bit barren at times, lacking magical towers and sparkles at every turn, but it fit the feel of the world. It was supposed to feel empty and dying. The other thing this movie nailed was the sheer scale of some of the set pieces. Where Ghibli films excel is in the fine detail, which I don't think Shinkai got quite as well in this film, but the scopes of some of the set pieces were jaw-dropping. Particularly I have to mention the giant hole in the world that book-ended the film and that multi-eyed monstrosity that was meant to represent the god of this world. And hey, since we're talking about monsters, special mention has to go to those skeleton-like creatures that swam on the ground like sharks of the shadows. They were flat out creepy.It's far from a perfect film though, and I particularly have a bone to pick with the music. The sweeping orchestral score has all the subtlety of a child smashing a spanner on a table to get attention. Because the same score is used for almost every single slightly dramatic scene, it robs the music the intense effect it's supposed to have on the more dramatic scenes. It's also a bloody long film, about 2 hours long, and takes a while to get going. It doesn't really pick up until the characters visit Agartha, and that takes almost an hour. This is partly down to Shinkai spending far too much time setting the scene, showing off the landscape of Asuna's home town. Which is fair enough, highlighting the ordinary world so it makes the contrast with Agartha that much stronger, but he really spends too much time on it. I really didn't need that shot of dragonflies having sex Shinkai, and could you please stop it with the bloody clouds? Yes, these scenes are incredibly important to establishing Asuna's character for the development that occurs later on, but it doesn't stop the scenes from being boring. And no, sticking in the fox-cat from Nausicca won't make these scenes that much more tolerable. That's just cheating.Plus since it's basically Ghibli, it carries over not only the strong points of magical worlds and amazing attention to detail that these films have, but also carries over the warts too. Towards the end it really starts to get a bit silly, especially when the giant monster thing swallows the main character and jumps down a bizillion foot drop in order to transport her, looking rather like a pregnant woman crossed with those robot things from Laputa. It even brings over the forced in environmental message that Miyazaki works into his films with the grace and subtlety of a hippo doing ballet. It did only got a passing mention and, while clunky, wasn't anywhere near as bad as Miyazaki's tend to be. Besides, the movie earns so many points by adding the much needed nuance to the main character and the sorta villain that I can forgive most of the mistakes it makes. Asides from the clouds. Please stop with the damn clouds.There is one final problem I'd like to highlight. There was something off about the pacing. The story was very well told and wove the themes of loneliness and loss in extremely well, but the transition from set piece to set piece was clunky, as though it was adapting a TV series and these were the gaps between episodes. As I said, it's a two hour movie which is really a touch too long, but I also wouldn't want to cut much out of it (asides from all the clouds). I think it may have suited a short Noitamina length TV series or OVA instead. You could have delved into some of the characters pasts a bit more, or told us more about Agartha. That was one thing I was a bit miffed about. There was an interesting conflict between Morisaki and the people of Agartha where he accused them of accepting their decay and being lazy, which tied quite well in with his own story, but it didn't really tackle the Agartha side of the story once he'd left.While there are plenty of flaws with the movie, I did end up enjoying it a lot. Not sure how fans of previous Shinkai films will take this, as it's a drastic change from them. I suppose the themes are kind of similar (or at least I'm told the themes are similar, I was too busy gnawing my arm off in an attempt to stay awake to notice the themes of his previous films). But if you like Miyazaki's films, you'll like this. It's too long, take a while to get going, gets a bit silly at times, and someone needs to bop the composer over the head and tell him to lay off the full orchestral sweeps every once in a while, but it's a genuinely entertaining film with a well told story. And clouds.

octavia.kautzer - 2013-04-08 19:44:19

Imagine someone looking at Studio Ghibli in hope of creating something similar, but end up completely missing the point and delivering a train wreck of a movie. This is how I would describe Children Who Chase Lost Voices.Although, to be perfectly honest, I do not entirely agree with the Ghibli comparison many have done. The similarities stop after a magical land, equally magical creatures and character designs that, with some small adjustments, could have come from any of Hayao Miyazaki’s flicks. The rest is characteristic Shinkai flair, albeit this time muddled with a severe identity crisis.On a first glance Children Who Chase Lost Voices does not sound too bad. A girl named Asuna is about to be killed by a magical beast when a mysterious boy pops up and saves her. One thing leads to another and soon she is thrown into Agartha; a land unknown to mankind.This is a good set-up and it also tries to tackle subjects such as death and bonding. But the lacklustre execution leaves extremely much to be desired. It is hard to understand how Shinkai, who at least were somewhat coherent in the past, could end up doing this mess.The story never really makes any sense and Asuna’s drive, a character she had known for ten minutes disappearing for reasons unbeknownst me, is a really bad excuse for starting it. Every ten minutes, sometimes even less, we have drama cranked up to eleven even by Shinkai standard. In most cases these moments are variations of Asuna needing to be saved which does not help making the drama less tiresome after the tenth overblown scene.There is no room to for Children Who Chase Lost Voices to actually breathe and explore its own setting. Agartha itself is never properly established and neither are the people nor the creatures that inhabit it. There is some conflict, a large kingdom and so on… but these do not matter at all. This becomes almost pathetic when none of the main characters even question or act surprised at what they are witnessing. This is because they are only there to move the already non-existent story forward.As if to rub salt in the already fatal wound, Children Who Chase Lost Voices also suffers from a directing that I never would have guessed would come from Shinkai who is an experienced person. The movie has a lot of scene transitions and cuts which results in a very fragmented story. In one second there is a chase scene, another second it has ended and then all of a sudden we are in a town. This hurts the already unexplored setting even more! Add in the tedious drama I spoke of earlier and it simply does not mesh that well.And this leads me to the movie suffering from an identity crisis. It does not know what it wants to focus on. The setting is not important, the story is poor and the characters are shallow. Yet Children Who Chase Lost Voices incorporates them all in a hope of achieving something. But that something never shows itself throughout the movie. Even the themes, death and bonding, are thrown out of the window towards the end as a way to squeeze out a tiny bit more drama instead of something believable.Whether or not Children Who Chase Lost Voices was an experiment by Shinkai to try out something new or an attempt to emulate someone else’s success does not change the fact that this is a disaster.An utter disaster that makes me skeptical of his future works.