Flying Phantom Ship

The film is a mishmash of many ideas that delivers, mostly At one point it is a "Megagodzilla vs. The Flying Dutchman", the next minute we're in a middle of government conspiracy, (coca)cola-drink addictions, a lame Scooby Doo lookalike dog clowning around and so on.

I sought this film purely because of Miyazaki, but I cannot say whether his contributions are visible. The animation is weak by today's standards but it easily compares to any Saturday morning cartoon of today. And speaking of the Scooby Doo one has to wonder whether this film rips off the animation series from the same year or is it vice versa...? The orchestral score is also rather good if a bit overwhelming at times.

The plot isn't very hard to follow even though it jumps all over the place from ghost stories to huge scifi battles. I especially enjoyed the purposefully idiotic "Boa-juice" advertisements, a drink that is served in a bottle that resembles the Coca-Cola bottle, but causes a severe addiction and isn't very healthy. Funny stuff, probably an intentional jab to the soft drink industry.

Also of note was the military-industrial complex conspiracy where arms manufacturers stop at nothing to create a need for their weapons. Parallels to modern day conspiracy theories aren't hard to find.

All in all this is a 1-hour action packed adventure feature that after the first few minutes keeps a fast pace to the end. Good luck hunting this obscurity!