Better Late Then Never

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Blistering performances.

WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS.I watched this movie again last night and it still never ceases to get old for me. I love this movie is simply is one of the best children's films.I figured Hayao Mayazaki helped in this because he is such a great director of anime movies.From the beginning seen to the end it it's amazing. I loved how his bed flew out his window. It makes me wish that it would happen to me one day. Just sleeping and then your off to Slumberland.This movie totally deserves recognition. So what if it's not Disney like. Have you seen Dumbo (warning contains Alchol use), Beauty and the Beast( Warning Frightening Images), and lastly The Little Mermaid (Warning Sexual Images.) Disney movies are full of hidden adult things.This movie is the probably one for all ages, the one that really fits the bill in amazement when it comes to imagery. It's like the Spirited Away of our generation. It was way ahead of it's time and had a great moral to teach us. Responsibility and Justice.Nemo is one of those unforgettable characters.I also Loved the whole Pajama thing with the incantation. It was simply great. This movie deserves to be rated in the top 5 on the best animated movie list. It may not be a Fantasia, but it is a Spirited Away.

I wanted to see this movie very badly when I was a pre-teen, maybe 10 or 11. It looked so cute, like a lot of the movies at that time. I remember Christopher Lloyd & his various guises in the voice acting world, and imagined this to be of a similar calibur. How sadly I was mistaken. Unlike Disney, whose calculated quality assures something you will enjoy, whether you like it or not, this is an animated feature with liitle charm & little to keep my interest. The characters felt like something snatched from Don Bluth, but with none of the individuality or charm. The half-hearted, unpleasant musical number (I only remember one: when Nemo is being instructed in the proper way to conduct himself, reading books, standing up straight & such) is painful to watch, and I wished that Nemo had resisted the adult forces. He didn't. The plot in predictable & contrived. Think Pandora's box meets the standard "let's go on a journey to find ____, meet new friends, learn something important about ourselves..." type plot. As cool as the scene with the bed coming alive & leaping thru the rooftops looks, don't put yourself thru the torture that is this movie.

"Little Nemo" is not easy to watch, but then again neither are the original comics by Winsor McKay easy to read. He had a wild and unconstrained (sometimes nightmarish) imagination, and the movie mirrors that general feeling. However, the imagery of this film is a striking tribute to a master of imagery. I wonder if Miyazaki of "Spirited Away" and "Castle in the Sky" was influenced by McKay. His flying machines, architecture, lighting and characters remind me of those seen in the "Little Nemo" comics and his casual cross-disolves from fantasy to reality and back are highly reminiscent of McKay's work. The film's major failing is its attempt to maintain a coherent, disney-like story arch in the midst of the rampant near-madness of MkKay's imagined world. Also, the squirrel was a mistake. Over all though, if you're familiar with McKay's work, I recommend you see this film to get a feel for what a McKay movie might have been like if he had persisted beyond his fledgeling attempts at animation. To see his actual attempts, I recommend the DVD "Animation Legend: Winsor McCay".

Ever rent a movie out of curiosity because, although you've never heard a good thing about it, you want to see it anyway because you thought it looked good? That happened to me with "Little Nemo"; I rented it one summer and felt as if I had struck gold.The thing that got me with this movie was that the animators managed to imitate the original Windsor McCay illustrations so closely. Being an illustrator myself, that completely won me over and that alone would be cause to recommend it. But this is also one of the most visually inventive animated films I've ever seen. I will not spoil the surprise by describing anything, but the way this movie depicts Slumberland is surely the best thing about it. This is definately worth hunting down.