Plot: After being shipwrecked on a deserted island, a man encounters a red turtle which changes his life.

Any new film from Studio Ghibli always gets me at peak interest. While this is not quite a pure Ghibli production, it is certainly a co-production with European distributor Wild Bunch.

This debuted at last years Cannes Film Festival, and I was hearing really good things about it. A few more festivals, some general releases in various countries and an Oscar nomination later, it has finally arrived onto British shores.

I avoided all trailers, as I heard enough positivity to not need to see any. But I did not know it apparently has hardly no dialogue. That sounded promising as I love visual story-telling, and when it is done well, it can be something quite special.

The opening act sets us up well with the situation our main character is in. You get absorbed by the lovely animation with a dreamlike score going on in the background. Then the longer the film goes on, the more into the realm of fantasy we get into.
There are so many lovely segments, especially when the story takes a dramatic turn in the early part of the second half. The scenes at night and under the water look gorgeous and the accompanying score makes it quite a magical experience. There are also some minor characters that totally deserve their own spin-off. They are so sweet and funny anytime that they are on screen. It is the perfect amount of comedic relief.
The ending might not have that triumphant oomph that matched with the rest of content. But it is one that leaves open for discussion and you can have your own interpretation of it which I liked.

Despite the ending not being quite as satisfying as the rest of film, it is a wonderful piece of cinematic art that I rarely see, and with their being virtually no dialogue, this film is universal. I love films like this where this can be seen by anyone of any language, and you can get the same experience out of it. I always hope for more films like this, as it reminds me of the origins of film before the talkies came around.

Director Michael Dudok De Wit and his team have a fantastic job. The imagery and symbolism is fantastic especially in the night scenes and the whole experience was exciting, moving, touching, sweet, funny and sad. It is great to see that a simple plot can give us such a terrific film. Films like this keep my faith that you don't need complex plots to make a critically successful feature. Also the 80 minutes duration felt right. Had it been longer, I think it would have over-stayed its welcome.

As I mentioned before, the score by Laurent Perez Del Mar is so dreamy. It is a really great piece that fits perfectly with the imagery. I will certainly be listening to the entire score multiple times.

I must mention that the rating is PG, so it is fine for kids to watch. I think kids could really get into this. There are some tough scenes, including one moment that I found really distressing. But the overall feeling of it, is one that they can get into. At the screening I was at, there was a family of six in front of me, and all four kids seem to really love it, and they looked to between 6 and 9 years old. They seemed to be Studio Ghibli fans which was great to see, as they got excited when they saw the studios logo at the start. So top parenting by them for getting their kids into those films. I hope to get my nephew into these films one day.

It is a shame that I can't put it in my top films of 2017 list, and I have this down as a 2016 film. However, this would be well into my top 10 films of last year. Also in terms of films I've seen in a calendar year, this is the best one so far.

Rating: 9/10