Post by Shonokin on Oct 31, 2007 8:00:46 GMT -8
OK, here's my very brief review of the movie.
It does follow a very typical Mizuki type story line. The greed of Nezumi-Otoko causes shenanigans and a rift between humans and youkai. The plot centers around a little boy and his sister. Their father happens to pick up an Evil Jewel that Nezumi-Otoko has stolen from a bad batch of Kitsuni. The jewel takes over any weak willed human who touches it and it has caused all sorts of trouble throughout history. The Kitsuni were going to use it to power their takeover of humanity, until Nezumi-Otoko stole it.
All the youkai establishment is looking for this jewel and the leader of the badguy Kitsuni frames Kitarou for stealing it. Kitarou has to find the jewel to clear his name.
The good points: All the Kitarou primary cast is present; Neko Musume, Konaki Jijii, Sunakake Babaa, Nezumi-Otoko (of course), Ittan Mommen and Nurikabe. I thought the make up on most of the humanoid characters was pretty cheap looking though. Neko Musume was probably the closest to the manga and anime. There are some guest appearances by youkai such as Aburasumashi, Rokuro-kubi, Karakasa-obake and most of the usual suspects. There is surprisingly only the barest glimpse of a Kappa.
The high point of the movie is the end credits, where all the youkai do a melody of the different dance numbers from the various anime series. That was actually very fun, but unfortunately that really was the high point of the movie, which does not bode well for the rest...
If you look up the phrase "Deus ex Machina" in the dictionary you will find the climax of this movie in it. It completely sucked. The movie overall was just barely watchable but the conflict resolution is just a huge cheat and makes one wonder why it was even a movie about Kitarou. None of the resourcefulness of Kitarou tricking and manipulating an offending youkai like you'd see in the comics or anime is present.
Yet another movie where the producers/writers/directors etc didn't really understand the source material and what makes it work.
It does follow a very typical Mizuki type story line. The greed of Nezumi-Otoko causes shenanigans and a rift between humans and youkai. The plot centers around a little boy and his sister. Their father happens to pick up an Evil Jewel that Nezumi-Otoko has stolen from a bad batch of Kitsuni. The jewel takes over any weak willed human who touches it and it has caused all sorts of trouble throughout history. The Kitsuni were going to use it to power their takeover of humanity, until Nezumi-Otoko stole it.
All the youkai establishment is looking for this jewel and the leader of the badguy Kitsuni frames Kitarou for stealing it. Kitarou has to find the jewel to clear his name.
The good points: All the Kitarou primary cast is present; Neko Musume, Konaki Jijii, Sunakake Babaa, Nezumi-Otoko (of course), Ittan Mommen and Nurikabe. I thought the make up on most of the humanoid characters was pretty cheap looking though. Neko Musume was probably the closest to the manga and anime. There are some guest appearances by youkai such as Aburasumashi, Rokuro-kubi, Karakasa-obake and most of the usual suspects. There is surprisingly only the barest glimpse of a Kappa.
The high point of the movie is the end credits, where all the youkai do a melody of the different dance numbers from the various anime series. That was actually very fun, but unfortunately that really was the high point of the movie, which does not bode well for the rest...
If you look up the phrase "Deus ex Machina" in the dictionary you will find the climax of this movie in it. It completely sucked. The movie overall was just barely watchable but the conflict resolution is just a huge cheat and makes one wonder why it was even a movie about Kitarou. None of the resourcefulness of Kitarou tricking and manipulating an offending youkai like you'd see in the comics or anime is present.
Yet another movie where the producers/writers/directors etc didn't really understand the source material and what makes it work.
