Mune: Guardian of the Moon

I watch a lot of movies, and most of them are fairly forgettable. So I was surprised to find that this obscure film was so fantastic. When I saw it on the shelf I thought it would be one of those horrible cut rate movies from some off brand studio. How wrong I was. This movie is of a different flavor and style than what you would see from the Hollywood giants, and that is a good thing. It has the most unique take on cgi animation I've ever seen. Rather than having the bland digital perfection of the style you see coming from Pixar, Blue Sky, Dreamworks, Illumination, Warner Brothers, Sony Animation, etc... this film has a more painterly look. The world building is so magical and memorable. The character designs are great! The only downside is that you can tell the dialogue has lost something in translation and the voice performances are as average as they come, and some are miscast. Other than that this has found it's place on my top ten list of animated films. Highly reccomendend!

This was such a unique movie, and I really appreciated it for that, but on the other hand, it was so unique that there's no way I could have gotten some of my family to sit through it. It's almost too slow and complex for young children, so I'm not sure who the target audience really was. It was like watching art in motion. It was refreshingly different. I'd recommend it to people, but I can't say it's become a favorite.

Animation - All around the animation in this movie is just beautiful. All the different visuals and ideas in this movie are just wonderful. This is worth watching just for the appearance alone.

Story - This is a movie that is full of brilliant concepts, but they don't all tie into each other very well. The pacing is all over the place. Maybe if the movie was longer or had a better script it could've worked better. The only version I could find was with the English dub, and not the original though. Maybe some of it is more interesting in the original and maybe the story flows smoother, but based on the length of scenes I doubt it. The story isn't terrible, just a bit disjointed and generic at times.

Characters - This movie is a bit light on the character development. It probably could've spent more time on developing any of the characters. Honestly one of the biggest problems with this movie is that it is way too short.

Glim - (this bit might contain spoilers) Glim is a character whose concept is more interesting than her personality. She is a person made of candle wax that melts when too hot and freezes when too cold. Its kind of a cool idea. The problem is, she is completely unnecessary. Glim combines two of the tropes I hate the most - completely bland an unnecessary love interest, and the fake-out death. She could've been removed from the story completely (along with those "comic relief" demon things) and nothing would've been changed. The only reason I can see for why she is in the movie is so that there is a female character. If the movie really needed a female character though then why not make one of the guardians a girl?

There's something nice about being able to pull up Netflix and stumble upon little films that I would have otherwise never heard of. This one in particular had caught my eye a while back, so I finally got around to watching it, and for the most part, I enjoyed what I saw. From the thumbnail and synopsis, I expected that the movie would have some nice visuals and a bland story; to my pleasant surprise, it did have both of those but also had a heaping ton of imagination and creativity.

Mune's strongest point has got to be the world it takes place in: this place is completely alien to our own and yet is entirely believable. The film features such a thorough world and mythology that I assumed it was based on an existing TV or book series, but it is in fact a completely original story. I won't go into detail on what all it is about, as discovering each little feature along the way is a wonderful experience.

The movie is originally in French, but Netflix's English dub is seamless, and this in no way feels like a foreign film. I'd also like to point out that the score was written by Bruno Coulais, who also scored Coraline and Song of the Sea.

Aside from the strengths I pointed out, though, Mune is fairly generic. The story beats and characters are what you'd expect for this sort of movie. Although I did enjoy Nicole Provost's spirited performance as Glim, the voice cast is for the most part nothing special. There's a mischievous guy who's unsure of himself, an arrogant dude who learns to help people, etc., and each character sounds the part without adding anything special.

With that said, I would like more movies in a future franchise to see how they expand on and dive into all that they've set up. If there aren't any sequels, though, I'll still be able to remember Mune as a happy little accident I had while browsing Netflix.

It is so refreshing to find an original story beautifully and simply told without being overblown. It avoids many of the Disney clichés with regards to evil villains who are simply "boo" fodder, sidekicks who are there only to provide comedy relief etc. Instead we have characters who are flawed rather than being simply good or bad. It is almost Zeussian in its weirdness, but the fantasy all adds to its gentle charm.