moonbell

I watched this film at Annecy Animation Festival, right after I'd seen two other anime films (In This Corner of the World and A Silent Voice) neither of which I will be reviewing or spoiling here but both of which were, while wonderful films, not particularly cheerful. Therefore, as the last anime film I was seeing in the programme I kind of expected that kind of tone to be present in Lu also. I had also seen the trailer for it and it very much made the film seem to me like a bootleg Ponyo... yet I somehow really wanted to give it a chance. And Iam so, SO glad that I did. All my expectations were subverted and the trailer does the film no justice. The only way I can really describe Lu Over The Wall is by saying it simply feels like the feeling of sheer joy, in film form. I'll admit, when it started off, with the slightly sulky male protagonist and his musician friends right at the start I thought "oh no, what did I get myself into", but the moment Lu enters the scene that was all gone and the film was an absolute joyride. At points when I thought I couldn't be having more fun, it got more fun. I was grinning for a solid 60% of the film and the audience was laughing at multiple points and if that's not proof that this film is pure joy, I don't know what is. Catch me buying this film on DVD and playing it if I'm ever down, and in the unlikely event I ever have children I promise you they will be raised on this stuff.

kokuborou

Let's take a different approach about this movie....from a child's perspective this movie is very attractive and he feels vey connected to the story ,art and characters and will have a great blast watching it. One thing for sure this movie was made to be viewed together with all family members on a Sunday afternoon . It's has a simple and catching formula with a little fantasy and magic added to spice up things.The visuals are appealing and the ost is catchy. What's remarkable about this movie is how it handles the bond between humans and mermaids and how it influencedthe lives of the human characters and their choices. It doesn't try to go deep or portray a dark side of it, it stays the same innocent , simple and magical story from a book that your mother would have read for you when you were a child before going to bed. From my point of view this movie didn't feel so appealing for my taste or left something memorable especially the characters. Some characters didn't have enough screen time and they could have shown us more about their past (for example Kai's dad band) to leave that emotional impact and connect us to them. Although i gotta admit that the last 10 minutes did a great job of that but despite all of that it seemed rushed and the attachement was lost. The story seem akward in some parts but hey that's just my own impression and how i felt you can judge it with your own mind after watching it. To end my review if you want to have a reminiscence about your childhood and you don't mind the eccentric and childish style of storytelling then this is your perfect choice otherwise if you don't like this genre you may avoid wasting 2 h.