It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I was curious about this film, after I had watched the trailer online, and I was fortunate to find it on Netflix. I thought it was a visually astounding movie, and I was glad that there was a chance for 2D animation in 2014, when it comes to animated movies.The film's story is about an exiled poet/artist named Mustafa and his relationship with a struggling widow (and his housekeeper) Kamila and her mute daughter Almitra. The film is also about the impact Mustafa's words had on the townspeople, but the town's militant government thinks those words are seditious...stupid!I thought the casting was excellent with Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek and Frank Langella. I don't have any particular scene I like, because I love it from beginning to end. So like I had said this film visually astounding with great animation.

The movie is an adaptation, so it must be judged as an adaptation meaning separate Gibran's work and judge the movie on its ability to complement the original text. Plot 0/10: The original book had a very loose plot that exists solely to allow Almustafa to switch from topic to topic. It's usually something like "And so-and-so said, 'Speak to us of blank.'" and then Almustafa talks about whatever. So the movie chose to make those segments longer, throw in some conflicts, romance, jokes, and standard archetypes. I'm guessing it was an effort to make the movie appealing to a wider audience, but it failed miserably. Nearly every plot item that was thrown into this movie was complete garbage, even Almitra's arc made me annoyed because it felt lifted from GKIDS's Song of the Sea (which really deserved an Oschar). The humor feels like something taken out of a really crappy children's movie. I've seen people calling this movie 'Art Film', but it's not. Fantasia is art film and this movie could have been but it tried to reach an audience that would never appreciate this movie and alienated the real audience. I somewhat agree with the people who call this a kids movie, because it was seriously dumbed down. I know 0/10 seems harsh but there is seriously nothing positive to say about the plot, excluding the source.Animation 6/10: There's been a trend to use 3D with toon shaders to create a traditional animation look and it's something that still doesn't quite work. The backdrops on this movie are fantastic, but there's something revolting about 3D motion and shadows that can't be fixed without a Disney scale budget, and toon shaders only make shadows worse. The 3D is painful there were several instances where I had to look away because it was so darn awful. I also saw quite a few animation errors particularly involving clipping and eye motion. The shorts that are actually based on The Prophet tend to be better and they are all very different from each other which is nice, but this also causes varying levels of quality. Fortunately for every bad short there's a really amazing short and overall it's decent. If the movie was just the shorts I would recommend it.Acting 5/10: I'm usually really impressed with the actors GKIDS can pull. Their Ghibli work is fantastic and Song of the Sea had some really strong actors, but this movie was just disappointing. Liam Neeson did a fantastic job, but was held back by the animation, the secondary character were pretty standard for an animation movie especially the government workers, but the biggest disappointment was Quvenzhané Wallis who is one the few decent child actors but doesn't quite live up here. Her first line was pretty decent (but that's largely due to the buildup), but after that she's just another child actor who doesn't quite know how to act in an animated movie.

A beautiful little animated film based on the poetry of Kahlil Gibran. The film doesn't, as I supposed, reflect the actual life of Gibran in its plot, nor does it depict the plot of the original book in its main storyline. That was created for the film. A poet named Mustafa (voiced by Liam Neeson) is being held under house arrest for his writings, which the government fears are an incitement to revolution. He is set to be released, and is led through the town toward a ship on which he will leave. As he goes through town, he converses with people and speaks the poetry of the original work. Over this poetry, several different animators (the most famous of whom are Nina Paley, Bill Plympton and Tomm Moore) interpret the text with their own animations. The wraparound segment, directed by The Lion King's Roger Allers, is CGI of the type seen in the Disney short Paperman. It's a little clunky, but it's pretty. The central character of the film is a little mute girl named Almitra (when she finally does speak, as one might expect she does, she is voiced by Quvenzhane Wallis), who follows Mustafa on his trip through the town. She's extremely cute and well animated. Her mother is played by Selma Hayek, who is largely responsible for the project in the first place. John Krasinski, Alfred Molina and Frank Langella also co-star. The animated segments are mostly abstract, and mostly pretty great. I saw the film mostly for the Tomm Moore segment. It's hard to pick a favorite. Perhaps Joann Sfar's segment, which is of a tango over the poem "On Marriage." Definitely recommended.

Having seen Disney & animated movies since childhood in Bombay , I was expecting something different. I have had the book sine 1988 which was given as a gift and having read it many times over , I should have visualized it to be different. But I was so dumbstruck after it was finished that I Couldn,t stop crying and the feeling of joy I felt.The entire film was based on the excellent Animation, combining 2-3 different ones combined to make this a masterpiece . Yet nowhere is the name Bardel Animation Colouring House been once mentioned. I am delighted that the names of the Animators were put. The tears were for the hardworking CEO & VICE PRESIDENT of Bardel who lifted the work on their shoulders when others though it could not be done, we're not once mentioned.The feeling of joy was what a MOTHER feels to see what her daughter has achieved through the hard work and self discipline. I saw it on the Premier night. Hope to see it soon again.