Review of Voices of a Distant Star (2002) by Eric J — 31 Mar 2008

RATING (0 to ****): ***1/2.

The dawning of a new digital age is upon us, as Makoto Shinkai proves with his breakout hit, "Voices of a Distant Star", a 24-minute short he made singlehandedly on his computer. Obviously of an inherently simple nature, "Voices" has only two characters- Mikako (voiced initially by Shinkai's wife), a young middle-schooler who joins a battle on the other side of the universe against aliens, and Noboru, the boy she once knew on Earth and is now left to wait for her text messages that take longer and longer to arrive. Surprisingly, we do get some mecha battle sequences, but their use is wisely restrained.

With the entirety of the film being centered on the inner thoughts of the characters, "Voices" is much like the final episodes of "Neon Genesis Evangelion"- which had many fans furious but had me very pleased. Even if you might know where this story is headed, "Voices of a Distant Star" is still powerful, short and sweet. On the animation, while its low-budget roots do show in the CGI mechas, the "sketchy" quality of the hand-drawn characters makes this similar in production value to most television anime, but with an added handcrafted charm. The inherent sentimentality may be off-putting for some, but Shinkai does it well and never doubts himself or his work.

MPAA: Not Rated (but would be PG for sci-fi violence).

Runtime: 24 minutes (fills up entire runtime).