Liz and the Blue Bird

Released Nov 9, 2018

1h 30m

Drama

Animation

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Liz and the Blue Bird: Trailer 1

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83%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

78%

Audience Score

50+ Ratings

Best friends in their last year of high school realize their is no such thing as being together forever.

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Jordan Mintzer

Hollywood Reporter

Yamada has a very keen eye for depicting adolescent malaise in visually evocative terms, and Liz and the Blue Bird could have benefited from even more flights of fancy than she allows for here.

Nov 14, 2018

Full Review

Charles Solomon

Los Angeles Times

The sequences illustrating the fairy tale are rendered in a handsome water color style, but even these scenes feel too slow and deliberate to enliven the film.

Nov 8, 2018

Full Review

Richard Whittaker

Austin Chronicle

What's most impressive is that Yamada gives delicate life to a wafer-thin story of two friends drifting apart. Without ever feeling choppy or over edited, the shots are composed in microscopic detail.

Rated: 3.5/5

Nov 1, 2018

Full Review

Juan Barquin

INTO

Yamada equates the love between these two young women to a concert, impossible to perform unless there's communication and the two musicians fall perfectly in step with each other.

Sep 17, 2021

Full Review

Rachel Wagner

Rotoscopers

While it is not in the same league as A Silent Voice, it is a sweet and pleasant film that's worth a watch.

Rated: 6/10

Jan 19, 2019

Full Review

Jennie Kermode

Eye for Film

Older viewers may find that the sheer quantity of angst on display here makes for a trying watch, and may wish the girls would pull themselves together and have a proper talk, but the simple prettiness of the film is liable to win it many fans.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 11, 2019

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Mark C

Ambitious, surreal, visually unique, out of nowhere break away side story from the Sound Euphonium franchise. Imagine if someone made a dead serious feature length film about Janice, and Marcel the monkey from "Friends" in the style of a 19th century impressionist painting. More of this randomness please.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/23/21

Full Review

christopher c. m

But are we cutting into the story book? Did it really happen and we're flashing back to when it happened. There are no answers to these questions. I like a slice of life anime story but when it goes somewhere. If it was just the Liz and the Blue Bird without the confusing band kids subplot or side story or whatever, it might have worked. Slow but it would have world. Anime features can be 50 minutes and still be a feature. There was no need it to be 90 minutes and that other story is what ruins it, like "Fireworks", it goes nowhere, slowly.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An extremely special film that displays Naoko Yamada's perfection of her craft. In concept and in setting, it is a remarkably small film. The film takes place almost entirely within a few rooms of a school (outside of the fantasy B plot) and is about a singular thing: the strained friendship between two people. Despite how seemingly bare-bones that is, it's a dense and carefully crafted film that never disappoints. The soundtrack is phenomenal. Kensuke Ushio is a true gem in the medium and I hope he continues to collaborate with Yamada. The gentleness of the songs fits perfectly with the tone of the film and the addition of diagetic sounds of a school into the songs themselves is brilliant. Credit of course must also be given to veteran and long-time collaborator to Yamada, Yoshida Reiko, who wrote the film. The two are an unmatched pair.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It may not have a huge scope, it's quite small, but especially after Hibike! Euphonium, there is a lot of personal feeling in the movie. It is a very soft feeling movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I made a Rotten Tomatoes account for this. Personal favorite movie. This is some high art

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The younger life in the movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

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Naoko Yamada

Director

Atsumi Tanezaki

Mizore Yoroizuka

Nao Tōyama

Nozomi Kasaki

Miyu Honda

Liz

Konomi Fujimura

Natsuki Nakagawa

Yuri Yamaoka

Yuko Yoshikaw

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Liz and the Blue Bird: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Best friends in their last year of high school realize their is no such thing as being together forever.

Director: Naoko Yamada
Screenwriter: Reiko Yoshida
Distributor: Eleven Arts
Production Co: Kyoto Animation
Genre: Drama, Animation
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 9, 2018, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 5, 2019
Runtime: 1h 30m

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