If the translation on the back of Japanese DVD is to be trusted, then Brave Story is set to be a phenomenon in and outside of Japan. Grossing more on its theatrical run than the newest Ghibli film, Brave Story is the animated film spearheading the arrival of a video game series, a line of toys, a comic series, and a whole host of merchandise and memorabilia. Say what you will about the Japanese animation industry, but no one can argue with their God-like ability to create a financially successful franchise and pimp it out to every known kind of media - print, game, film, television, knick-knack, and candy. What's more, based upon this feature length animated film, I believe its success is warranted, even if it is not nearly a perfect outing.
It is no secret - I love the idea behind the hero's journey, and all of the mythology wrapped around it. Classic tales of quests, treasures, heralds, perils, and tests grip my imagination like no other. I live for narratives of high adventure which is why I have always gravitated to, and rarely stray away from, books, films and games such as Dragonlance, The Dark Tower, Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, Princess Mononoke, and many, many more. I have often wondered why the hero's journey is the basis for so many things found in the Kingdom of Nerd, or to put it another way: why are so many nerds (myself included) drawn to the power of the hero's journey? I think I know the answer - it is quite simple. We nerds want to be the hero, and we long for adventure - we want to be Luke Skywalker, or Han Solo, or the monk San Te, or Roland. We are romantics, and epic tales of fantasy and the imagination let us live these dreams, if only vicariously.
Brave Story is a prototypical example of the hero's journey, so it's no wonder why I enjoyed it so much. It is the simple story of a boy on a mystical adventure to save his mother, and set things right in a world on the brink of destruction. Wataru's life is quickly falling apart. His father recently left his family to live with another woman, and his mother is hospitalized due to an extreme illness. Left without much hope, Wataru follows a strange boy through a magical door and is whisked away from his suburban Tokyo home into a strange world full of magic, monsters, lizard men, and cat people. If he is able to complete his quest, a quest to find five sacred gems, he will then be able to ascend the great tower and hold palivar with the Goddess of Fortune who will grant him a single wish. While on his quest, Wataru becomes a great warrior, employs a team of friends and comrades, and overcomes many obstacles. He also matures, and grows up a little, as he learns the power of self sacrifice - is the happiness of one worth the sadness of many? It is a simple story, yet one full of the things I crave.
Technically speaking, Brave Story looks and sounds amazing. It is co-produced by Warner Brothers, the sound design is done by Lucasarts, and the animation is handled by the ever prolific studio, Gonzo. Brave Story's animation is a mix of traditional hand drawn methods, digital 2D, and CGI - and it all fits together seamlessly. The CGI blends nicely, and only stands out when it needs to - many of the great monsters and creative effects are generated through computer animation, and they all look nice. One such sequence of blended animation depicts a wizard conjuring monsters made of leaves - the characters are hand drawn, the monsters are CGI, and the background is a mix of both, and everything looks like a cohesive unit, each technique is used to strengthen the whole, not as a crutch. The backgrounds too are incredible. They are extremely detailed, and the colors used to paint them sizzle off the screen. My only complaint in regards to the art is the character design - it is, frankly, dull. Wataru looks like “generic boy hero #3,” and the rest of the main characters are by degrees a bit better or worse.
The generic character designs are, unfortunately, not the only problem with the film. Like other animated features based on, or as the basis for, a cartoon or comic book series, or a video game, the narrative feels more like a series of vignettes, and does not flow like a well structured story should. There are more than a few moments when part of the journey seems to be totally missing - and I must presume that this chunk of narrative will be filled in during one of the many subsequent expansions to the world and its mythos. Wataru also suffers from Pokemon-syndrome, and here is what I mean. Often times in the Pokemon cartoon and films, Ash, the hero, doesn't actually initiate much - his victories come by way of convenient accident, or he is simply helped by others. While Wataru isn't totally Ash-like (e.g. useless), his destiny is ultimately left in his hands and he does make a crucial decision, I would have liked to see his character take charge more often. However, long time fans of anime are no doubt accustomed to these kinds of narratives and characters, and so we can easily make allowance for them. This is not an excuse - I would love to see the medium shed this trend - but this does explain why I am able to forgive Brave Story for its shortcomings and still recommend it.
I am sure we will be hearing more from Brave Story in the near future, and I am looking forward to discovering more about the film's world. Whether these new adventures come in the shape of video games, comic books, or a television series, I hope they are treated with the same amount of artistic integrity, and maturity as the film. I thoroughly enjoyed this animated feature, and I long for more like it. As I have talked about before, sometimes what I crave can only be fulfilled with a well produced animated film. Movies like Nausicaa, My Beautiful Girl Mari, The Iron Giant, and Project A-Ko, with their wonderful marriage of art and sound, their vibrant color and fantastic adventure, possess a certain quality that live action films simply cannot. I can now safely and boldly add Brave Story to this list, and I look forward to entering its world of adventure again.
