Más allá de la luna

A Netflix animated movie that very much follows the Disney/Pixar conventions. It's done well and with sensitivity, but it's let down by a mediocre middle section.

Loosely based on a Chinese legend, it tells the story of a girl whose mother dies and has to face the possibility of his father marrying again. She is not ready to let go and accept someone else in her family, so she ends up travelling to the moon with the unwelcome company of her annoying little step-brother to find proof that the fairy tales her mother told her were real, and hopefully convince her dad to remember her mother and not marry again.

The 3D animation looks quite good in the scenes set in China, with very expressive characters suiting the sentimental story being told. Once on the Moon, however, the acid-trip colors used there can't hide that the animation becomes more simplistic and cheap.

It's also in that middle part where the sensitive storytelling turns into a collection of so-so animation for children tropes. The improvement of the relationship between the main character and her step-brother is explored very superficially.

The songs (for this is a musical) are nice, and the resolution is satisfactory. Sure, the message here is very conventional, but then this is a movie for children, and it is with enough charm that I found it touching. It is a pity that they couldn't come up with something more special for the middle section.