“just close your eyes, but keep your mind wide open”
for a disney film marketed for children, this is actually quite good. it’s a great exploration of childhood, with friendship loss, and imagination. something that i admire about this film is that it doesn’t sugar-coat its harsh themes whatsoever. and while it is seen through the perspective of children, who imagine a fantasy world with goblins and monsters, it’s not really magical - and instead more used as a coping mechanism to real life anxiety. i was surprised at how sad the latter half of this movie was, but that was another thing that kept me engaged. showing the heartbreaking death of a central character - which was genuinely emotional, and shows the aftermath of coping with loss of loved ones. it’s really depressing at points, but it’s very tasteful. handling heavy subjects such as bullying, class divides and poverty - and even nicely humanises characters who use putting down others to make them feel better about their situation. while i wasn’t fully attached to this movie, as it did take a couple days to actually finish, i generally don’t have any faults with it. the protagonist, jess, is nicely developed from a more timid individual, to one who’s more resilient - showing while the death of his bestfriend had a massive impact on him - their relationship made him the person he becomes. there’s limited cgi, and both child stars portray both characters with realism and emotion. this movie is definitely sadder than most disney movies, but is incredible nonetheless.
“just close your eyes, but keep your mind wide open”
for a disney film marketed for children, this is actually quite good. it’s a great exploration of childhood, with friendship loss, and imagination. something that i admire about this film is that it doesn’t sugar-coat its harsh themes whatsoever. and while it is seen through the perspective of children, who imagine a fantasy world with goblins and monsters, it’s not really magical - and instead more used as a coping mechanism to real life anxiety. i was surprised at how sad the latter half of this movie was, but that was another thing that kept me engaged. showing the heartbreaking death of a central character - which was genuinely emotional, and shows the aftermath of coping with loss of loved ones. it’s really depressing at points, but it’s very tasteful. handling heavy subjects such as bullying, class divides and poverty - and even nicely humanises characters who use putting down others to make them feel better about their situation. while i wasn’t fully attached to this movie, as it did take a couple days to actually finish, i generally don’t have any faults with it. the protagonist, jess, is nicely developed from a more timid individual, to one who’s more resilient - showing while the death of his bestfriend had a massive impact on him - their relationship made him the person he becomes. there’s limited cgi, and both child stars portray both characters with realism and emotion. this movie is definitely sadder than most disney movies, but is incredible nonetheless.
