Dreams, machines and family fuel Kamiyama Kenji's animated delight, NAPPING PRINCESS

If the new animated movie from Japan entitled NAPPING PRINCESS seems initially a little too childlike and "adorable" to merit your full attention, hold on for just a bit. If you do, you'll soon find yourself involved in a tale of alternate universes -- one a kind of dream world, the other a reality that is heavily linked to the dream. Initially, I wondered why they hadn't entitled this one, Dreaming Princess, but after viewing this really quite good children's film, I realize that the word "napping" is a lot more fun, reflective, too, of the main character's energy and smarts.

As written and directed by Kamiyama Kenji, shown at left, the story here is actually rather complicated (I wouldn't be surprised if some older children may have to pause the Blu-ray or DVD along the way and explain certain things to their younger siblings), involving family history, an automotive dynasty, stolen technology for self-driving cars, and lots more.

All of which gives this animated charmer additional freight, weight and wonder. Napping Princess is by turns sweet, thrilling, funny, moving and consistently one hell of a visual treat.

I wish that the stills shown below were of better quality because they simply do not do justice to what will be up there on your screen (via the Blu-ray version, at least). The colors are spectacular and the animation quite delightful. You'll particularly notice early on the film, I think, the breakfast that our heroine, Kokone, sets in front of her dad because you'll want to grab a fork and dig right in.

The landscapes, based on the actual Japanese locations, are also lovely, while the tale told here -- of an automobile dynasty and the struggle for its control -- will seem both specifically Japanese and simultaneously indicative of so much our Capitalist world today.

Technology -- not only auto-making but smart phones, tablets, and the like --  come into play, as do cute little teddy bears, all of which makes the movie oddly enjoyable on several levels. Mr. Kamiyama's achievement lies in how he manages to bring all this together in so relatively seamless a fashion.

By the end you may find yourself surprisingly moved by the unfolding story of a shattered family and how it is reunited -- well, somewhat, at least. All the leading characters are brought to life quite well visually and aurally, and as the story gains momentum, you'll enjoy everything from plot twists and car/motor-bike chases to fights between monsters and robots (think Pacific Rim but a lot shorter and more fun) plus some inter-generational trauma and drama.

Whatever you do, don't miss the sublime visuals that accompany the end credits. These give you, in a lovely animated version of archival footage, the family's backstory in a series of sweet, incisive snippets: a most charming end to a very surprising movie.

From Shout! Factory and GKIDS and running a lengthy but never boring 112 minutes, and available in both the original Japanese version with English subtitles, and the English-language dubbed version (for younger children), the excellent two-disc set containing both Blu-ray and DVD, with a host of special features included (the 15-minute interview the writer/director Kamiyama is definitely worth seeing), the package hits the street tomorrow, Tuesday, January 30.

Todd Haynes' WONDERSTRUCK may leave you (and your kids) in that special state. I hope so.

Finally: A children's movie that really is for children. And for their parents. And maybe especially for their grandparents. (WONDERSTRUCK is set back in time in both the 1920s and the 1970s.) Best of all, this is not one of those Marvel or DC "stupid-hero" films, of which we've seen far too many of late. At the press screening I attended a month back, here in Fort Lauderdale, as the end credits rolled, there was a burst of spontaneous applause the likes of which I've not heard in all my two years down here in Florida. There were only maybe a dozen of us critics at the screening, but that applause sounded like it was coming from a hundred or more.

As much as TrustMovies has enjoyed and appreciated the films of Todd Haynes (shown at left: Carol, I'm Not There, Far From Heaven), he would not have guessed this guy capable of directing a movie for children that worked this well. (But, then, he was equally surprised by the success of David Lowery in directing the Pete's Dragon remake.)

Mr. Haynes' use of everything from the terrifically talented young actors involved to some fine, collage-like animation, an amazing diorama and New York City's American Museum of Natural History, in combination with the increasingly lost art of genuinely imaginative storytelling (the screenplay is by Brian Selznick, from his book of the same title) joins to make Wonderstruck a wonderment indeed.

Haynes and Selznick have divided their film into two stories that eventually connect. One is that of the young girl, Rose, played with wondrous openness and grit by newcomer Millicent Simmons (above), who leaves her comfortable New Jersey home to journey to New York City back in the 1920s to find and meet her idol and famous actress (brought to life by Julianne Moore). The other story, set in the 1970s, follows Ben (Oakes Fegley, shown below, the fine young actor who also played Pete in that Dragon movie), who comes to New York City to find the father he has never known, after his mother (Michelle Williams) has died in an accident.

How these stories weave together so beautifully and delightfully -- using New York's American Museum of Natural History in perhaps the most thrilling and meaningful manner I've yet seen on film (one that puts those Night at the Museum movies rather in the shade) -- is as wondrous as all else in the film, and the scenes involving the children at play (and learning) are so filled with energy, believability and sheer joy that they take their place among the great "kid" scenes movies have given us.

Ms Moore (above) plays yet another dual role (as she does in the better-than-you've-heard and under-appreciated Suburbicon), and she is alternately hard and soft, caring and not-so, and of course aces at both.

How Haynes' and Selznick's movie works itself out is less surprising than it is a kind of consistently visual (while mostly non-verbal) amazement. The movie deals in large part with deafness, and the way it handles this -- via conception, execution and especially performances -- is, I think, exceptional, original and quite moving without ever needing to jerk those tears.

How Mr. Haynes achieves this, with the help of Mr. Selzlnick, of course, is what makes him such a singular and thrilling filmmaker. Do stay through the end credits, which are joyful, explosive, colorful and finally meaningful, too. A word must be said, too, for the other and already quite seasoned young actor in the film, Jaden Michael (above, right, and below, left), who plays Jamie, the kid who encounters Ben on the city's street and befriends him. Young Master Michael is certainly the equal of his two fine co-stars. Mr. Haynes has managed to encourage (or maybe simply allow) three indelible child performances to burgeon here, and great thanks are in order. This is magical movie-making.

One of the year's best films, Wonderstruck -- from Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions and running a just-right 115 minutes -- after opening last week on the coasts, will hit South Florida this Friday, November 3. In Miami, it plays the AMC's Aventura Mall and Sunset Place, the Cinepolis Grove 15, and Regal's South Beach 18; in Fort Lauderdale at the Gateway 4; in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood 16, in Boynton Beach at the Cinemark 14, and at The Movies of Delray. On the following Friday, November 10, it will opens throughout the country. Click here to find the theater(s) nearest you.

Netflix streaming tip: OKJA is yet another amazing blockbuster from Bong Joon-ho

Is there anyone else in the movie world making such intelligent, suprising and entertaining blockbusters as that South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho? I don't think so. He is indeed the new Spielberg but also something quite "more." After his Snowpiercer (from 2014), he has now gifted us with OKJA, the new sci-fi/fantasy/(sort-of)monster movie that features as its leading character a stalwart adolescent girl up against a corporate world that controls us all these days. Really: I can't think of another moviemaker (Mr. Bong is shown below) who could begin a film as though it were a child-and-her-adorable-giant-animal movie and then, by its end, give us one of the most memorable, moving, surprising and disturbing scenes to ever grace the screen (and I mean any kind of screen, not simply the "theatrical" variety).

That scene, by the way, may make the movie a more difficult experience for kids -- even though they'll love and appreciate most of the film.

And yet, because Bong is such a smart and gifted filmmaker (Mother, Memories of Murder, The Host), he is able to simultaneously give us the "happy ending" that those kids (and, come on, us adults, too) so want, while forcing his audience to view the larger picture -- in a manner so stunning and wrenching that it will seem like nothing you've encountered previously.

For thie alone, Okja deserves, and will undoubtedly receive, its placement on many of the year's "best" lists. (In fact, Variety has already picked it as one of the top movies of the year at our current halfway point.)

The film's story -- no spoilers here -- is all about a girl and her pet pig. That the pig is one of many genetically modified porkers and has grown to "monster" size has been no problem, since the girl, her grandfather and their pig live way the hell out in the countryside where they see (and are seen by) nobody else.

In the supporting cast are the likes of Paul Dano (above) and Jake Gyllenhaal (below), but the movie belongs to the Korean actress Ahn Seo-hyun, as the girl, Mija, and to the special effects department that created Okja and her giant breed. She and they are wonders indeed.

The drama arrives when the corporate entity (personified by the gifted and funny Tilda Swinton) that owns the pig takes it away from the girl to become the mascot for a new line of "pork products." Will our heroine allow this to happen? Not on your strip of breakfast bacon. So our filmmaker orchestrates everything from top-notch chase scenes to a pig-in-the-china-shop spree in a Seoul mall, from a marketing parade in Manhattan to a scary scene in one of those experimental laboratories.

But Bong is simply smarter than almost all the other would-be-blockbuster moviemakers. He always sees both sides of the situation, and so continuallly surprises and unsettles us. He understands that the power of money and greed can work both ways, that corporations can make themselves rich while feeding the planet, and that animal activists who want to harm neither animals nor humans will occasionally do both. He also understands the impulse not to kill other life forms we come to care for, and this, finally, is what sets up the film's biggest conflict.

So, sure, children will find more on their plate than movies like this usually provide. But give them the chance to view and handle it, and I suspect they'll remember this film for a long, long time. Stick with it, and you will, too. Opening a only a few theaters (in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center), the film will find its biggest international audience via Netflix streaming, where it is now playing.

A MONSTER CALLS: In J.A. Bayona's visually resplendent film, a child handles grief and loss

Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona may never have made an out-and-out blockbuster, so far as American audiences are concerned, but he has also never made an uninteresting movie. From The Orphanage through The Impossible, onto a couple of episodes of the masterful Penny Dreadful (if you have not watched this series, one of the best-written to hit cable TV, you must: It's streamable now on Netflix) to his newest work, A MONSTER CALLS, the manner in which Bayona handles what seems to be his favorite theme -- children-in-trouble -- grows ever more masterful.

The filmmaker, pictured at left, combines knockout visuals with psychologically adept portraits of people in trouble, and the result is a movie that offers both special effects and genre thrills along with unusual emotional weight. His latest film, I would posit, is his best so far. And yet, I would also posit that it, too, will be no blockbuster. But it will intrigue and please -- on several levels -- most of the audience that manages to discover it. A Monster Calls is a beautifully conceived and realized tale of how a child learns to handle major and possibly devastating loss and grief.

In its handling of this theme, the film may bring to mind the recent remake of Pete's Dragon, and yet the two movies are very different. Bayona's is the darker and much more complex. It will give the children who see it plenty of impressive special effects to view, but it will also offer quite a challenge in terms of understanding the lessons that the titular monster imparts to the child.

That child, Conor (above), is played by a terrific young actor named Lewis McDougall (who made his screen debut just last year as Nibs in Pan), and the monster who takes him in hand and seems to have burst fully-formed from a giant old tree is voiced by Liam Neeson (below). It's a great combination, made even more productive and exciting by the extraordinary visuals Bayona and his team have created.

In addition to having to deal with the increasing sickness and encroaching death of his mother (another lovely job by Felicity Jones, below), Conor is bullied at school and is saddled with an absentee dad,

as well as a grandmother (Sigourney Weaver, below) whose cold demeanor seems to offer little comfort or help. The movie manages to combine its necessary "lessons" with enough visual pizazz, warmth, charm and energy to keep its slightly-too-long running time properly atmospheric and effective.

Will the film prove too much for younger children? Maybe. Older and/or more mature kids should find it worth the challenge and maybe even memorable. Adults may very well appreciate it even more.

From Focus Features, the movie opens nationwide today, Friday, January 6. Focus' web site for the film is no help in providing playdates, cities or theaters in which the film is showing. Click here for the Fandango site for the film and/or tickets.

Note to parents/grandparents: Take the kids to see Disney's fine PETE'S DRAGON remake

Been meaning to post on this one since we saw it (with our grandkids) opening weekend. It is a wonderful film, but I remember when I first heard that its director was to be David Lowery -- the filmmaker who gave us Ain't Them Bodies Saints -- my initial thought was him?! Well, "him" has done simply a splendid job of making a kids' movie that adults may love even more than the children they accompany to the theater. Within the first few minutes of the movie, Lowery shows he is perfectly in command of story and style, giving us a loss so fraught in such a beautiful, sad and delicate manner, you'll be holding your breath, first in shock and then in wonderment.

The film captures the loss of parents in a child's life as well as anything I've seen since Bambi (and that, of course, involved anthropomorphized animals as stand-ins). From loss we go almost immediately to the wonder, and Lowery (at left) and his team have created a dragon so special and amazing (note his chipped tooth/fang, below) that he'll be a keeper in yours and your kids' minds probably as long as you are able to retain any movie memories. The decision to give the big guy fur instead of scales help turn him into a kind of precious pet.

We're dealing with a primal theme here -- enormous loss and how to cope -- and Lowery manages both the reality and the fantasy with aplomb and finesse. His family scenes sparkle and charm but also carry requisite weight, while the fantasy is by turns spectacular, exciting and full of delight. There are some scares -- something no kids' movie should be without: they love these -- but nothing too strong to harm.

In the cast are two excellent child actors -- Oakes Fegley (above, right), adorable and winning as Pete; and Oona Laurence (above, left), who was so amazing in Lamb -- and both excel.

In the roles of the adults who surround them, the movie provides equally fine actors -- from Robert Redfrord (above, center), as the old codger who once had a run-in with this same dragon, and Bryce Dallas Howard (above, left) as the helpful forest ranger,

to Wes Bentley (above, left) and Karl Urban (above, right) as a pair of good/bad brothers who provide help/harm to our heroes little and big.

Lowery, who co-wrote/adapted the screenplay with Toby Halbrooks, never talks down to either the kids or us adults. You can sit back and drink it all in without fear of being somehow "reduced." This is how to make a children's film gleam and resonate; one hopes that it proves a kind of model for a new direction in Disney live action.

Pete's Dragon continues to play screens nationwide. Click here to access the web site, then click on Get Tickets to find the theater nearest you. 

Make plans: 3rd Annual Miami International Children's Film Festival hits town Dec. 26-31

If you're looking for something fun and educational for the kids during that lots-of-free-time week between Christmas and the New Year, search no further: the Third Annual Miami Children's Film Festival should provide just the ticket. One of the things that makes this fest such fun -- and different from certain other kid's film fests -- is its international quality. This year's roster includes films from France, Finland, Norway, Uruguay, South Korea, and of course Hollywood USA.

The line-up should please kids of various ages, too. The Hero of Color City's bright day-glo animation (above) should prove a treat for the younger set, while tales like Belle & Sebastian (below) and Ballet Boys (shown at bottom) will please older kids and probably adults, as well.

Look for live-action thrills, inventive and colorful animation, and fascinating documentaries, too. Most interesting of all, in fact, may be the workshops for kids included in the festival -- one on how to learn stop-motion animation, the other on how to make your own musical instruments.

TrustMovies has seen and covered two of the film showing in the fest -- France's classic The King and The Mockingbird (above) and Hollywood's Hero of Color City (click the link to see the review of each). Both are worth a viewing, with France's effort very nearly a must-see.

One thing to consider with international films is whether or not the version your kids will see is dubbed (as is Mune, from France, shown above) or with subtitles. (Both types are represented in this festival.) You can quickly learn the answer by clicking on the trailer for any film in the series and then easily decide on whether the movie is age-appropriate for your own young readers.

To learn more about this upcoming festival, simply click here and then browse the various films and events. Taking place at the Coral Gables Art Cinema in Coral Gables, FL, the fest runs from December 26 through the 31. Book now to avoid disappointment later.

Colorful animation about crayons for kids: Frank Gladstone's THE HERO OF COLOR CITY

OK: It's not Pixar. Not even Dreamworks. And forget about the enchanting, mysterious likes of Laika (Coraline, ParaNorman, and the just-out Boxtrolls). No. The new animated movie titled THE HERO OF COLOR CITY is something of a throwback to the simpler days of telling a small story with relative efficiency and simple but hugely colorful animation, using some OK-and-famous voice talent and rolling out a movie that should please undemanding parents and kids. Once, that is, they get past the pretty awful beginning scene in which the crayons come to life and spout some really third-rate dialog. Yikes!

The screenplay is credited to five writers but only one director, so I'll mention him: Frank Gladstone (pictured left), who has done a serviceable job of, well, I guess, putting it all together. The story begins with a young boy involved in his drawing, until it's bedtime and his mom insists he go to sleep -- after which his crayons come to life and head off down a magic chute to a place called Color City. Once there, the movie grow more colorful and things begin to percolate. A minimal plot takes hold and the "character" of various crayons appear. These are more or less based on their colors. Yellow is always scared, red is red hot, white wants to be used more in place of always remaining as background, while black is tired of constantly always being used to make the "outline." You get the picture.

Except that some of these colors/characters seem utterly arbitrary (green and blue, for instance), so it would appear that not a lot of thought went into this screenplay. I took our two grandkids -- age six and nine -- to the press screening, and both enjoyed the film. At 77 minutes, it's just short enough to make the cut, and because the movie does get better as it moves along, it's a tolerable watch.

Of the voices, Christina Ricci's in the lead role of Yellow (above) comes off best. She's got ample screen time and makes the most of her frightened character's learning how to face things and "brave up."

Every children's movie needs an antagonist that the protagonist can bounce off, and Hero of Color City has a pretty good one (a pair, actually) in the drawing of a king and his small sidekick (shown left and center, above) that our sleeping child from the film's beginning has made. When this pair comes to life and chases the crayons onto their home turf, there's a big misunderstanding regarding who this "monster" and his pal really are and what they want.

What the movie does best is toss color at us: everything from full-out primaries to day-glos and more. Especially lovely are the scenes of the multi-colored sea (above). Since part of the plot has to do with colors draining out and disappearing, we lose some of this fun along the way. But never fear: It all comes back again in the end.

This film may even have a larger purpose: As the end credits roll, we're told that kids can now recycle their crayons and give less fortunate children the chance to make use of them (at least I think that's what's being said), along with a web address that offers more information.

The Hero of Color City, the rare animated movie from Magnolia Pictures, opens tomorrow, Friday, October 3, all across the country. Here in New York City, although the film was advertised in this past Sunday's NY Times as opening at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, turns out it will play instead at the AMC Empire 25. You can see a listing of all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters by clicking here and scrolling down.