Excellent but underrated film

Admirable film.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I have seen many great animated tales - from Wall-E, Cars, Ratatouille, Curse of the Were Rabbit, Spirited Away, Belleville Rendezvous, Princess Mononoke, to Ghost in the Shell, Aladdin, Waking Life, The Lord of the Rings and Peter and the Wolf.This is film has some great qualities of all the above. Firstly the story telling is charming, and time is spent on the characters from the beginning. The animation is more Belleville Rendezvous than Wall-E but it is an exquisitely unique experience as a result.In this film the intensity always took me by surprise. The incredible contrast of blue eyes, a silhouette frame against the night sky. The intricate detailing of eastern architectures. The vivid saturation of colours. The use of light and dark and colour in particular is possibly the most beautiful of any animation I have ever seen. It had a wonderfully natural quality to the character animation - like the older Disney films, but with striking backgrounds and detailing.Also interesting is the constant interplay between western and eastern cultures. The dialogue is at times both beautiful, quirky and thoughtful.I'd recommend this if you have an interest in other cultures, beautiful drawing and quirky storytelling.

I saw the movie in Multivision channel three times. I could not understand that if the movie was about a Persian culture or Arabian, because they were speaking French/Arabic but they were using Persian symbols, colors, signs and so on. If the movie was the history of a Persian king, why they were speaking Arabic and if the movie was the history of an Arabian culture why they used the Persian symbols, colors and signs. I think the producer and writer were not familiar with Persian culture and this is really a weak point for the movie. I suggest them to read and see more about the middle east and specially Persian Gulf culture to prevent such a mistakes.

Maybe I've been lately overwhelmed by the Miyazaki's and Oshii's works. To not to mention a couple of other good-to-great names, for a 3 year period approximately. but it seems to me that there was already set some good rank for animation and background quality as in 2d and in 3D. So, the animation of a few main characters is awful. Jerky and Frankenstein-like stomping-the-ground movements are everywhere. mimics is lazy and not too complicated in terms of broad range of emotional expressions and variativity between some of the characters. The lone good one was a princess. It is live and energetic, leaving the very warm feeling and smiles on audience faces.Strange enough to see a mixture of well detailed faces with single color shaded clothes. As it seems to me it is more to make it simple to produce than some kind of artistical expression. That's because 3D models were overlaid on 2D backgrounds that was far too simple. Not much details, nearly no depth and interesting lighting which is always been the salt of moving pictures. not much movement on the background. That lack of the attention spots at deep layers produces somewhat dull picture that sure attracts the eye to the only moving and not so flat figures.The script can be characterized as full of mumbling and sticky places. Fairly standard princess and knight story. Remember the core of the "shrek" plot? I understand that is a tale of being a Human and a friend, to be simple. Although the beginning of the movie is filled with strong tension. The visions of heroic deeds that should be accomplished. But at the some key moments it makes a glimpse of treat and a second later it is gone far beyond. For me it's a bit frustrating to see the long and long chewed horrors to disappear magically and quickly. Before and then comes a few long scenes that picture a cornerstone events with far too simple words and explanations.I think now, that movie can entertain and be a good lesson of friendship to a little child, but not enough for a mature human being ;)

In Valladolid, Spain, the serious movie-goers with extremely high standards when they evaluate movies applauded the film in the Fifty-First International Film Week (SEMINCI 2006). It is impossible to exceed in every way: The theme and story, the incredible cartoon drawings, the luscious colors and their combinations, the endearing characters, the creativity, the stunning difficulty of the sketching and the music and sounds of the languages involved all combine to offer us a memorable film. It may seem curious but the word that I voiced when it ended was DELICIOUS. There are so many impacting images that linger even now in my mind's eye.