Another wonderful SailorMoon movie. I first saw this movie about 2 years ago and have watched it several times since then. Although it's not my favorite anime, I tru;y enjoy SailorMoon. I thought I should let you know before continuing so that you know that I have a bit of a bias to start off with.

WARNING: If you're of the camp of those who intensely dislike ChibiUsa (Usagi's daughter), don't see the movie. The SuperS movie focuses around the "pink-haired brat." :)

I saw the subtitled version of this movie (commonly referred to as the SuperS movie). So, I will use the original, Japanese characters names in this review. The team who translated the movie did an admirable job; I was quite impressed. The subtitles were not dumbed down, which can be a problem with some translation teams.

The Storyline
This movie relies less on the comings and goings of the series than the other movies do. So, it's a good choice for anyone who has never seen any SailorMoon at all or for a person who has seen very little of the SailorMoon TV series.

As I mentioned, this movie lets Chibiusa shine. Because of this, the movie has a cutesy, sugary feel that could only be managed by focusing on such a young girl.

The main story is about fairies who are working for an evil queen. The fairies collect kids in the middle of the night by playing a song about candies and cakes and then loading the children into large, flying ships. The queen has asked that the fairies bring her children so that she can keep them young forever. In actuality, she just wants to harness the power of their vivid imaginations and intense emotions. Basically, she just wants to steal their youth. Chibiusa is captured and the senshi (sailor soldiers) have to save her and the rest of the children with the help of one of the fairies.

There is a bit of cultural background about the fairies that is actually explained in the movie. But in short, the fairies are able to take the children because the kids are tired of being pushed around by their parents.

Special Characters
In comes one of my favorite secondary characters: Peruru. It's a shame that they couldn't have used him in the regular series, but there you have it - he's a movie-only character. Peruru is one of the fairies that the queen is using to collect children, but he meets Chibiusa and (crush time!) decides that what he's doing is wrong.

As I mentioned, Chibiusa is the main focus of this movie (just as she's the main focus for the SuperS TV series). This is both good and bad as ChibiUsa seems to have a large fan base and also a large group that intensely dislikes her character. The original, Japanese version of the character (Chibiusa) is much sweeter than the dubbed North American version (Rini). So, if you find Rini annoying and bratty, but have never watched ChibiUsa, you might want to give the subtitled movie a try.

Animation
Great visuals - I love the flying ships!

The colors are sugary and sweet as you would expect from shoujo (girly cartoons) - Lots of pastels and bright colors. Backgrounds are highly detailed. Character design is of a much higher quality than the TV series. And special attention was paid to the costuming of the characters.

Music
Infectious songs! The three o'clock fairy song that the children sing will be almost impossible to get out of your head for a while. Very cute, very fun, very, very stuck in my head as I type this. And actually, this song sums up the movie pretty well:
...
Oh, I am just full of dreams
Mint pie and apple pie
Good cake and good spirits
Cheerful with cookies
...
Come on let's go together,
come on let's go in secret
Even without mom and dad here
I'm not lonely, I'm not afraid

It's real boring all alone
It's strict being nagged by everyone
The country of candy is always in an uproar
...
(Lyrics thanks to http://members.xoom.com/lyricmoon/lyrics/sanji1.html)

The background music is also of a high quality. The senshi transformation sequence music is the same as from the TV series. So it seems a little weak, but not too bad.

Odds and Ends
Great interaction between Usagi and ChibiUsa in the cookie baking scenes. They are probably some of the best scenes of all time for them.

Not enough Luna for my taste, but I can't be too picky after the S movie. :)

Audience
This movie is probably too scarey for little, little kids. There are a few scenes that show children in glass coffins and they will probably find that disturbing. However, I think that 6 or 7 and up is a reasonable age range for the movie. Although subtitled version may be too much to expect from kids, so I would recommend the dubbed version for younger audiences and the subtitled version for older audiences. There is no foul language and the violence is minimal and mostly hands-off (magic-type attacks instead of swords, etc).

Conclusion
I really like this movie and it's enjoyable to watch more than once. This would make a great gift for a young girl or anyone who enjoys good animation.

I would recommend the DVD version if you can get it since the DVD has the subtitled and uncut, dubbed and cut and dubbed and uncut versions of the movie all on the same disc.




Recommended: Yes