if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Astro Boy style animation meets disturbing, incoherent surrealism in this odd project from a Japanese music duo called toL. I'm ready to try animation experiments anytime (most seem to come from Japan these days) so I was very interested in this film once I had heard of it.The danger with artistic experiments is that the creators sometimes confuse self-indulgence with creativity and that seems to be on display here. Or perhaps the need to complete a 90 minute movie caused them to stretch out an hour of material past the breaking point. Regardless, I found between the snooze inducing boredom was a lot of brilliance . The perpetual grayness doesn't help as it (and the disjointed narrative) successfully simulates a disturbing dream.If all was indeed created by only one animator, this person is due a reward. Visually excellent. The music and soundtrack are very good. The basic story, well, lets say it's been done before by Tezuka and other anime creators.Worth a look if you are interested in the outer reaches of animation or a fan of trippy movies.

Granted this is not for everyone since many have poor attention spans and cannot tolerate sub-captions but for the rest of us that appreciate good art no matter what country it is from this is the bee's knees! This jumps from rich animation in deep vivid color and detail and realism to black and white very simplistic 'hello kitty style animation with mouths and moving eyes. The music is pretty damn good as well. keep in mind this is not only done by Japanese it has never really been adapted to fit American culture so do not think this will have the same feel as other Animation titles such as Nausical or Pom Poko. This is the most unique piece of animation I have ever seen so far hands down. In a way it is an homage to classic animation and the modern age as the two differences in animation style constantly converge and diverge throughout. Some scenes are very Fantasia like. Tamala herself is very much a cat in the way she acts and subjects she speaks about. She comes off as cute but has a serious potty mouth at times and she smokes. it is like cute collided head on with reality. Imagine Dot Warner of Animaniacs smoking and letting out four letter expletives while going on freaky adventures. Well I hate to tell Dot Warner this but Tamala IS Cuter than she is! Sorry Dot... The story may come off as undirectional but keep this in mind, Japan is a country of coming to a point indirectly. This is one story that is about the subtleties, the art, the characters, and describes the human condition well in many of the smaller elements in it like references to human extinction and Catty and Co. running everything in an iron fisted monopoly. This is not for children as there is violence and sexual references. Also do not watch this one with huge expectations. It is a lite piece in comparison to say Akira nor is it as direct in story as Kiki's Delivery Service but it is different and for those that are into the different, bazaar, and strange (as well as the non-xenophobic viewers out there) this is a animation that needs to be in your collection. No serious collector of Japanese cinema or animation should be without this even if it is not only tough but expensive to get. I had to look HARD for this one but Yesasia came through for me! Try Amazon Japan as well. It can be had but you got to look. Even though it is my personal opinion I loved this animation and hope more comes from this studio! It was food for my mind!

This p***-poor excuse for an animated film has almost no discernible plot or characters you can make heads or tails or out (pun intended). It's supposed to be some sort of tongue-in-cheek comment on 21st century life, but your guess as to what it means is as good as mine. On top of that, the obviously computerized portions look amateurish. The sole bright spot is a pretty hummable soundtrack. Avoid this pretentious, silly mess of a film..

I went to this movie with no expectations of any kind, except that it was Japanese and animated. What I saw was perplexing and at times disturbing, but completely engaging from beginning to end.If you consider satire comic exaggeration with a moral punch, then this might be satire, though it's difficult to figure out what the moral is. The connections between the title character, Catty & Co., the Fritz Lang style 3-D artificial world, and Minerva are spotty. It would probably help to take notes during the rotting old professor cat's lecture, both at his slide show presentation, and during his confrontation with Michelangelo. For those who haven't seen it or read it elsewhere, these are all cartoon cats.But this is a movie, and you shouldn't need to take notes to enjoy it, and I enjoyed it thoroughly as it was presented. I love the black and white, sharply detailed designs, the splashes of vivid color, especially that painting Tamala discovers in the basement of the museum. The violence gets pretty intense in places, but it works very well and doesn't seem gratuitous.Tamala is worth a second look, but seems to be strictly short-run in most venues here in the U.S. DVDs are available from their website, but they're Region 2. It will probably be a long while before I see it again, but I anxiously await that chance.