A Tree of Palme

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emily m So unlike the other harsher ratings I enjoyed this movie. The animation for the time wasn't bad and gives off a good dark fantasy vibe now. (This with the exception of the big fish and the floating pink flowers that looked straight out of Barbie Mariposa) I think the biggest struggle with this movie was the understandability. I'm saying this because some of the people/place names sound too similar and that can make it harder to memorize facts. I do however think this movie is heavy and pretty scary. The movie's score totally freaked me out sometimes and of of the sad scenes made me nauseous. All in all, it takes being able to see different views easily to watch well, it's emotional, and only watch when high if you aren't scared or upset mentally easily lol. It had me worried I'd freak out for a couple moments there. I also liked him having a whole journey to figure things out but I wish we had a little more time with him after he felt more human. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Great cinematic experience. It isn't cruel, it's humane. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Having served as a key animator for anime classics such as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, and Akira; Takashi Nakamura more than proves himself in having a great directorial eye. One aspect of TOP that cannot be denied is the gorgeous art direction and fluent animation. It borrows the post-apocalyptic wasteland's of Nausicaa along with a mix of steampunk and cyber punk aesthetics (Akira) to create something truly mesmerizingly unique. Seriously, every frame of this movie could make a beautiful painting. I can't find the budget for this but I cannot imagine this was a cheap movie to make. I also have to give the movie credit for never lacking ambition with it's multitude of diverse characters and tackling mature subject matter regarding the human condition. Don't let the cutesy character designs fool you, this movie goes to almost David Lynch levels of messed up at times. However, at it's center it's a pretty sweet and touching romance tale that left me quite moved by the end. But ambition can also be a double-edged sword. Supposedly this was initially meant to be a TV show and it shows in the final project. Despite being quite long by animation standards (over 2 hours), the frenetic pacing and jumpy plotting gives me the impression that some scenes were left un-animated. For stretches the movie is moving a leisurely Tarkovsky-like pace only to then be broken up by jarring jump-fowards in the plot (Ex. the transition from the orphan's house burning down to the boat trip). The movie also falls into the trap that David Lynch's Dune adaptation fell into in which a lot of esoteric fantasy-laiden jargon is thrown at the viewer with little context provided. While I feel I got enough of the complicated plot to understand on a basic level, some plot details and character motivations remain a bit baffling. I feel if this movie were maybe 20-30 minutes longer, then we could have had more coherent world-building along with getting to know some of the supporting cast better. By being longer, the overall pacing and story would have been ironed out, leaving the viewer spending less time trying to figure out what is going on. I won't deny that this movie is a mess....but it is....a beautiful mess and despite my problems I will still watch it again due to it's intoxicating art direction, touching romance story and Takashi Harada's soulful music score. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Yet another animated film I wish I could love, but it is just too flawed to come off as even passable. A Tree of Palme is an often beautiful film with it's lush color scheme and inspired fantasy world so it's never uninteresting. Sadly, the film's plot aspires for greatness (it apparently wants to be a contemporary version of Pinocchio by way of Hayao Miyazaki) but it ultimately is it's undoing. To call the narrative messy would be an understatement, as the plot will go from scene to scene with no explanation of how the characters progressed to that point or even who a lot of these characters even are. Even at 136 minutes, A Tree of Palme feels vastly incomplete. Maybe it should have been a TV series? Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member A puppet has been given the task of delivering an energy source to an underground society. This movie is a mess. The sci-fi/fantasy setting is interesting but the animation isn't that great. The plot is all over the place and some scenes have no build up at all. Also, its two hours long when it felt like it only needed to be 90mins. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Unfortunately convoluted, but definitely respectable. The unique and gorgeous visuals alone make Palme worth a watch at least once. This story probably needed a full series or at least a multi-part OVA to really tell its story properly. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews

A Tree of Palme

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