spunkle07

Looking back on my favorite movies from my childhood--this, The Brave Little Toaster, Little Nemo--I loved them all so much yet I found them all extremely disturbing. As many other people have implied, this movie is a bit scary, and deals with some pretty heavy themes. But you know what? That's why it's a good movie. That's why, seeing it many years later, it isn't just some crappy kid's movie--this movie and the others I have mentioned have stuck with me my whole life. The fact that they are a bit disturbing is no reason to say that kid's shouldn't see them. Because you know what? I wouldn't be the person that I am if I hadn't seen movies like this as a kid. Movies like this challenge the kid in ways that things like the Care Bears never will, and in the long run, I think that is a good thing.

That aside though, I really believe that this is a great, beautiful movie. You can tell that the people who made it really wanted to make it--it wasn't just another movie in a long line of movies they were under contract to make, like Disney is today. Even in Disney's glory day's none of their stories were original, and this story is extremely original. I credit the makers of this movie much more than the makers of The Lion King. The animation is quite good and has a very unique look to it, the story is very interesting and has more than one layer at work, the music is beautiful--the tone of the guitar in this movie's soundtrack has stuck with me all these years. The weakest link, probably, is the voice acting, which is by no means BAD. But this movie was in fact translated into English from Danish, so replacement voice crew often loses something.

All in all, I think this is a wonderful movie. This is the kind of movie I would want to show my kids, because even if its a little traumatizing, well, so is life. To give your kids only some idealized world through harmless movies with little conflict is much more dangerous, in my opinion.