I had already seen the original 13 episode anime series for Madoka Magica. It was pretty good (I'd give it an 8) and was expecting to see pretty much a re cap of the series for the movie. The movie blew me away! The main reason why the movie was so good was because of the art style. The artistic rendition of the witches' labyrinths were amazing! You could tell that the animators really put a lot of work into the remake of this series. They really upped the art to a really fantastic level! As well, I feel like the movie built up someof the characters more then the anime did. You were able to see a additional scenes that were not in the anime that gave some of the characters, such as Akemi, some more screen time. The music was great. The music was great in the anime, but it was well utilized and was put in to accent situations very well. All in all, whether you have watched the full series or not this movie is definitely worth your time. It brings the story to a new dimension and is a visual masterpiece.