21/42
The film is dedicated to him as he passed away in 2021
Narrative
Two Irish orphans travel across America by train, meeting villains and heroes. They make an extraordinary friend and search for a new home while facing adventure and danger. The main character "Nick" The film is based on the director’s son Nico, who suffered from the same disease.
It’s a little different than all the animated movies
It has a more mature plot and storyline and it’s quite gritty and rough, it can navigate some pretty difficult stuff for a younger audience like kidnapping and killing and that kind of language. He doesn’t want to be henchmen where everyone is made of rubber and can fly through walls, he’s trying to invest in a real life-and-death hero story. Despite this, he fails to make it in the first half.
In these scenes, the cinematography and the expression of the characters created the same feeling
. In the first half, the pacing felt off, parts that grab the fall, the editing feeling rushed or incoherent. It all comes crashing down early on, and the indifference in the cinema when we saw this was palpable from the start.
Everything has improved
I suspect a lot of footage was cut or quickly edited to reduce the running time, and I felt they chose the wrong material to cut. It was a shame because the film really delivers in the second half. Once they reach the mine scenes, things have changed.
The pacing, cinematography and characters came alive
Overall a good family movie, worth watching. Don’t give up in the first half because things get a lot better as they go on.