Review of Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE The Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom
Ho boy, this movie is a disaster. It started out promising, but went spiraling down into a boring sloppy mess that could barely be called a movie. This is the worst movie I've ever seen this year! Story: 3 (Poor) On paper, the premise of the movie showed some promise, specifically due to the fact that Princess Tomoyo (from a different dimension than the one Kurogane is from) makes an appearance. We haven't seen much of Tomoyo in both the anime and manga when this movie was released, so this is a potentially interesting story where we not only get to see Kurogane interact with this versionof Tomoyo, but also explore a minor character who only appeared in the first chapter of Tsubasa, right? Nope.
Instead, the story goes through the motion of a formulaic plot. Be aware that for a movie, it is very short (lasting only 35 minutes!), so there's not much plot to begin with. Something bad happens to Tomoyo, Syaoran and the gang tries to take down the tyrant king, they acquire the feather, the end. That's it! I wish I'm joking, but aside from the convoluted lore of this country and the convoluted motivation of the villain to bring darkness into the world - neither of which were explained, presumably because they ran out of time in the 35 minutes - there's really nothing interesting here, and you won't miss anything.
Character: 1 (Pathetic)
That's right, pathetic. Character development is none, because there's not enough time to do any of that in the 35 minutes. The dialogue is brief and thin, so you won't learn much about Tomoyo's personality in this world, and the other minor characters are uninteresting plot-devices existing merely to move the plot along. We don't learn anything about that little boy that joins Syaoran's adventure either, Koruri. He merely mistook Syaoran as the bad guy at the beginning and becomes practically invisible throughout the rest of the movie (till the very end in the very last scene). Syaoran and Sakura are just trudging along as they always do, having no special development that's specifically made for the movie. What kind of writing is this? I've seen better character writing in Transformers movies!
Worse of all, Kurogane, the one who's supposed to have the most feelings towards someone who looks like Princess Tomoyo (irregardless of whether if it's the actual person or not) only appears for about TEN MINUTES of the entire movie! Ten minutes! Kurogane and Fai are left behind as side characters! What the hell is going on?!
Art: 6 (Fair)
Being a movie, the art is thankfully much better and more detailed than the TV series. But there are also slight variations and some weird changes that make the familiar characters you know look awkward. For example, Mokona looks thinner for some reason, and all of the main characters have slightly different faces from the TV series. The fight scenes are the highlight because of the improved visuals, but that's about it - a pretty but hollow thing.
Sound: 4 (Decent)
The music is functional. It keeps the movie from being too boring, and certain movies (like GTO) do have very awkward scenes where there's complete silence that makes it a dull experience, so at least this movie has the decency to add workable music. But that's it, workable and functional. Yuki Kajiura's sounds were recycled from the TV series, and if she added any new themes here, they were uninspired and didn't stand out.
Enjoyment: 2 (Dreadful)
Needless to say, I was left in shock when the movie ended. I kept waiting for a more interesting development to happen, something that might add layers or offer us new perspectives of the familiar characters we know, but nope, it just ended. What a slap in the face.
Overall: 2 (Dreadful)
This feels more like an advertisement for the Tsubasa anime and manga than a movie. Stay away from it, do not waste your time. There's nothing to offer for any kind of audience, both new and old fans of Tsubasa. Stick with the TV series, or better yet, the manga.