Coo che arrivò da un mare lontano

"Coo of the Far Seas" is a great adventure/drama anime from 1993, directed by Tetsuo Imazawa and produced by Toei Animation.

Basic plot: The day after a great storm hitting a small family's island, a young boy named Yusuke finds a baby dinosaur while riding his jet-ski. He takes it to his dad and they decide to keep it for a while. However, there is a big problem they have to face; several parties are also interested in this 65 million year old creature, and some of them are not so nice...

This 116-minute-long film is a great, exciting movie which should be better known than it really is. It is also a great movie to be watched by a whole family. The animation is pretty good, and so is the storytelling in this film. Julian Lennon's song "Children of the World", and the song which plays over the end credits are also fine.

Actually, I just so agree with IMDb-user Pablo who reviewed this film three years before I did, in many aspects. And then I'm especially talking about the action itself as well as the environmental message the animation team managed to pack into this anime movie. Like how some of the humanity simply don't care about whatever happens to the nature around us just to reach whatever goal they have, even if it eventually costs the lives of several creatures. It's just too bad not many anime movies/series take on this type of messages as this film does.

Again, this film should be better known than it really is, and is a great animated film to be watched by a family. Highly recommended. Overall rating is 9/10.

It may have its origins in a Japanese novel, and it may be about a plesiosaur, but the particulars don't matter too much: we've more or less seen this movie before. A young kid encounters an unusual animal and forms a bond with it, and while some adults in his life are helpful and good-natured, there are others whose intentions, with the creature and otherwise, are much less altruistic. There is light humor and cutesiness, there are heartfelt beats and touches of more urgent drama, and this rendition of the story is naturally rounded out with its own specifics to flesh it out. Some scenes are especially lovely, and others are especially gauche; there are plentiful tropes on hand, and sometimes the storytelling is so direct as to suggest outright Movie Magic. More curiously, there also distinctly comes a point when, even as the overall thrust of the plot remains familiar, it veers into a wild direction that strains suspension of disbelief, if not altogether raises a skeptical eyebrow; imagine if 'Free Willy' also borrowed thoughts from 1985's 'Commando,' with added geopolitical intrigue, and you're partway there. Still, while it's not super special per se, overall the narrative is fairly well-written and compelling, the scene writing ably propels the saga with a surprising variety of flavors, and by and large 'From a distant ocean came Coo' is earnestly enjoyable.

It's not that Okamoto Kihachi's adaptation of Kageyama Tamio's novel is in any way bad (far from it); Imazawa Tetsuo's direction is quite capable, too. It's just that some aspects of the writing are definitely more sure-footed than others. Down to the characterizations there are solid, admirable, enticing ideas here, but the juxtaposition of the extremes is less than perfect in the first place, and some ideas are unquestionably represented more clearly and cogently than others. Maybe this is an issue of adaptation in the first place, or maybe the episodic nature of a manga or anime series would have been more appropriate. Regardless, however much we may scrutinize and reasonably criticize the writing, it's broadly just swell, with welcome themes. And meanwhile, we can certainly trust in Toei Animation to churn out fantastic work. Thirty years later the sights of this picture may not be the top of the line, and maybe they weren't in the first place, but the artists provide a splendid visual experience all the same. As we rightly anticipate of Japanese animation even more than studios elsewhere around the world, this is flush with terrific detail in every regard: gorgeous backgrounds, and fetching creature and character designs; smooth, fluid action, effects, and other active elements; forward-thinking water effects; and among still more, gratifying consideration for texture, lighting, shading, and more. I place great trust in Japanese animation houses, and this feature is no exception; it's also noteworthy that very early in his career, rising filmmaker Hosoda Mamoru served a assistant animation director here.

In other capacities 'From a distant ocean came Coo' is just as if not more well made. I love the animal sound effects, and the voice cast give excellent, expressive performances as suits the needs of any given scene. I'm sort of downright impressed with composer Oda Kazumasa, emphatically because the mood ranges so widely in the storytelling, and all the while the score is a deft complement: being very pleasing to the ears to begin with, and meeting the demands of the lighter tones, the harder thrills, the tragic drama, and everything in between. Add in the welcome overall quality of the animation and the storytelling, and when all is said and done this really is a good time. It has its faults, and I really wasn't prepared for the shift around the halfway mark, but I'd be plainly lying if I said I didn't like this film. Why, jarring as the violence is once it kicks in, I dare say there's even a spark of originality here, and inspiration, that like-minded fare sometimes lacks. One way or another there's no need to go out of your way for it, but if you're open to all that the medium has to offer - recognizable plots, swerving tones, and all - then the sum total is reliably entertaining. It's no revelation, but I ultimately had fun with 'From a distant ocean came Coo,' and I'm pleased to give it my warm recommendation.

"Coo of the Far Seas" may be somewhat unknown and low profile, but is nonetheless a nice, fun movie that packs action and a environmentalist message.

The movie starts as Obata finds a strange creature, which he names Coo. At first, the movie starts at a moderate pace, as the relation between Obata and Coo develops. Soon, however, other parties interested in the creature will begin to cause trouble and what started really nice and peaceful becomes a battle for the creature's safety and some other major issues. It's a really fun movie, and the action seems like an analogy to today's conflict: humans fighting for nature against others who show no respect towards nature and won't care to cause damage to fulfill their goals. The movie's antagonist are such people- they are really, really hateful as they represent the humans' worst traits.

While the movie isn't really something new and it has some typical clichés here and there, it's a really good film. It's story and some elements are somewhat childish (for example, as the relation between Coo and Obata develops, I couldn't avoid noticing similarities with some other Japanese animations, such as Pokemon, where such human-creature relations are present) but that's not a bad thing- just some people may not dig it as children do. But still, this movie was far above my expectations (there really weren't much, as there's no much info about it).