Plot: A girl's discovery of a strange flower, cat and broomstick leads her to a journey to a mysterious and magical college with a dark agenda.

Japanese animation studio 'Studio Ghibli' is special to many people. For the last 30 years or so, they have given us some of the most amazing animation films of all-time.

Sadly, with many of long-serving film-makers including Hayao Miyazaki retiring, the studio is currently in a re-building state and have announced a couple of new possible projects.

But in the meantime, a few former workers have made a studio of their own called 'Studio Ponoc'. This first feature of theirs certainly had that Ghibli look to it when I saw some its images, and the story felt fantasy-heavy which is what made Ghibli so successful with many demographics around the world.

From the first frame, the animation is already as visually captivating as Ghibli's. I will never get tired of films that look this beautiful.

As for the story, I was seeing some similarities with many previous films from Ghibli as well as other fantasy films such as Harry Potter or The Golden Compass. That left me at a bit of a crossroads, because due to the lack of creative writing and character development, I was battling with the strengths of the visuals and satisfactory nature of the plot to see where I would rate this feature.

As well as the animation, another notable strengths was the score. It was very noticeable and had many strong moments when enhancing certain set-pieces. It had a recognisable themes that was used in various ways throughout the film.

I could relate this strengths with its animation, but the level of imagination in its world building and character design was great to watch.

Sadly, there were parts of this world where I was getting confused with some of its rules. They almost seemed either to contradict themselves or just make it up as they go along for dramatic purposes.

So to summarise, while the animation and visuals is as strong and striking in its detail as you would expect, the story and characters is inferior. There's nothing wrong with it, it just felt safe, satisfactory and it just did not made me care much for any characters. Also, the title character did not seem to learn that much or make much decision for themselves.

It almost felt like a greatest hits compilation of Ghibli's back catalogue. I noticed various scenes, character designs or ideas that felt like they had leapt out of previous Ghibli film. Also, the Harry Potter and even The Golden Compass comparisons were almost too much for me, and it started to not be its own thing.

I think the better story came from the opening scene. It seemed to be a the end of one story that leads us to the beginning of the story of this film. Now after seeing it, I think I would have rather seen the whole of that previous story from the opening scene, and that seemed it would be more impactful and long-lasting.

There is some magic in here from Studio Ponoc's debut. It's just not fully-fledged yet.

Rating: 7/10