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Oct 07, 2017scribby rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
(This review contains some quasi-spoilers.) Animated children’s drawings amid a riot of colors and sounds – and yet it tells of the coming of an industrial dystopia. The unnamed boy’s father leaves to go find work in the city, and the boy searches for him, has a number of adventures, and comes to realize the dehumanizing aspects of work and the big city. Music (always seen as a protest against the dark forces of the city) is symbolized as colored blobs which coalesce into a giant multicolored phoenix – which battles with the dark bird of industrialization. This is animation like I’ve never seen before, with an innovative soundtrack – and is as effective a statement for our times as Koyaanisqatsi was in the 1980’s. Beautiful, colorful, and ultimately tragic. Not actually a movie for kids, despite the apparent (intentional) naiveté of the art.