Admirable film.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Kaena wants more than her village life which centers around collecting sap from the tree Axis for their gods. The village elder sees the rebellious girl as a threat as the god demands more sap from the dying tree. She explores and encounters alien Opaz who reveals he is the sole survivor that crashed on her planet. The native Selenites killed his people and stolen their technology. The ship's core Vecanoi survived the crash and the Axis tree grows from it into space. Kaena has to retrieve the core from the base of Axis.This is an exercise in CG animation with a clunky story that needs too much exposition. It has one character in Kaena and the rest are forgettable. The CG is functional video game graphics from the era. It's an interesting world for a video game but needs much more work to make it a good story.

The 6 years since this movie was released has seen a deluge of CG offerings yet Kaena still has it's place. It is charming, engaging and a great testament to, and strong encouragement for; outfits that don't have Hollywood/ Square Enix/ Pixar budgets.I particularly enjoyed Richard Harris's voice-acting- his voice had a compassionate and gentle quality that really made me feel for his character.Some of the scenes were a little overwhelming to the point where I couldn't quite make out what was happening but to be honest I didn't care- i was too busy ooh-ing and aah-ing.A happy hour and a half indeed.

Anyone familiar with "Starchaser: The Legend of Orin" found here: www.imdb.com/title/tt0090065/ (1985) would see a striking plot similarity. Human slaves are forced to mine/harvest for false gods until Kaena/Orin decides to investigate the claims of these "so-called" gods. Thus an odyssey begins that puts the hero in a world they never knew existed inside their own backyard. I found my mind wondering during the movie (NOT GOOD) if this was stolen, borrowed, or lent? Both the films are foreign imports and both are computer animated in a fashion. This one is 100% CGI while "Starchaser" was painted over 3D wire-frames. This movie rated a 6 but I give it a 5. The animation at some points "cheats" (zooming & panning on stills) and seems too puppet-like. There are points you will feel like you are seeing someone doing SMA with dolls (e.i. Rudolph). However what red-blooded boy couldn't get into the fact that Kaena wears very little clothes in this movie! Wait a minute... she's not real. I might be young but I'm not stupid, give me a real half naked girl any day.

comparing this to toy story, ice age, shrek or pretty much any other animated movie is a mistake. they have nothing in common except being animated. complaining that there is no humour in the movie just shows that you didn't understand much (or any) of the tale it tells.this movie is dark, serious and sinister. it tells the viewer of another world, far different from ours. it is falling apart, the gods are angry, monsters are roaming and people are being killed. there is nothing to laugh about and adding humour to it would be like adding humour to braveheart. the story is quite original and doesn't resemble much of whats out there already. some video games spring to mind however. the movie has the same mystic atmosphere as 'another world' and 'the dig'.what makes this a hard movie to watch is that it doesn't make anything obvious. the story isn't easy to understand and you aren't supposed to be able to guess the second part of the movie after having watched the first one. you rarely have the feeling that you know whats going on.if this is a bad or good thing is up to you but i sure don't like movies that almost feel old before i started watching them.the visual design of the movie resembles that of the cgi in the final fantasy games (not the movie). you could complain on the animation of the characters perhaps, but it is a design decision to not make them look and movie like real humans. you might not like it, but that doesn't make it bad. and i can assure you that the characters don't resemble lara craft. other than being a girl.the movie is a 9/10 for me, but then again, i'm a sucker for this kind of story and visual design.