Review of The Great Yokai War (2005) by Tkon H — 16 Oct 2007

I´ve just found the Japanese version of Petersen´s "The NeverEnding Story". The story evolves around a little boy, who tries to find the strength, to become a hero. On his journey of saving the world (of course...) he is accompanied by several interesting and friendly spirits and a magical sword. It should be taken into consideration that Takashi Miike (!) did not have the budget of a Harry Potter movie to work with, so the special effects are not to be compared to Hollywood style work. Many of them are unique though, with some very well animated creatures (a mix of CGI, stop-motion and puppetry), embodying traditional Japanese spirits - ranging from hilarious (my favourite: the wall-spirit) to disturbing creatures. The movie is very entertaining, I´ve laughed quite a lot (I mean: just take a look at that squirrel!) and has a very animé-ish feel to it. Nevertheless, it is in my opinion a wonderful movie and I wish I had seen it back then, when I was a kid...

P.S.: Now this is what I call a very original way of teaching children the importance of recycling...