Gekijô-ban Dôbutsu no Mori

I knew when i discovered this japan-only release movie for one of my favorite games, that the cards were stacked against it. it was based on an open world sandbox-like game that really didn't have a story worth making a movie about, and that really shows. for the first three quarters of the film, there is no clear plot or conflict. its just aimless and blind events and cameo plugs that add no value and just serve to irritate because of the extent of their uselessness to the story. but when the plot does get going, it has nothing to show for it, and it was not very rewarding anyway. also, it has a bunch of sub-plots that go nowhere or actually conclude then proceed to tell you nothing insightful or entertaining about anything, such as the Tortimer sub plot.

On that note, the characters are even more flat and boring than i might have expected, with really no one changing throughout the experiences of the story that seemed convincing. and don't give me that "it's for kids" crap, kid films can and should have great plots and characters. this film has neither.

One of the main problems, that I found quite novel and surprising, is that it follows the games TOO closely. its almost exclusively the game mechanics just put into animated film. its quite off putting at times.

But that being said, the movie is not terrible, its just not good. there are some very funny scenes, you'll know them when you see them, and overall i enjoyed watching it, simply because of how ridiculous it was and how forced and contrived it was. but, if you don't like movies for this quality, or you know nothing of the animal crossing series of games,I would not recommend this film to you.