One of the most underrated anime ever, this movie realizes a complete rewrite of the Escaflowne TV series' original story doing away with many elements and reorganizing others giving them new meanings. I'll go out on a limb now and claim that this is a must-see for anyone who has watched the series.

Before going on with the actual review, I'd like to talk a little about this movie and why it's been met with so much negative criticism from both old fans and newcomers. First of all, it's important to explain what this movie is not.

This is not one of those ugly summaries that production houses make now and then. It isn't even a rework of the series the objective of which is to summarize the story eliminating fillers and other superfluous parts so that it can fit into a one hour and a half time span. It simply doesn't have that kind of objective.

It isn't a parallel story or something covering events that happened while the main story unfolded. It doesn't have the objective of making Escaflowne any better than it already was.

It doesn't have anything to do with the fusion of shoujo and shounen that set the original series apart from almost anything else ever made before or since.

It doesn't keep intact the original setting, except a few central elements like Gaea being a hidden planet in orbit around or near planet Earth. It doesn't keep the original characters intact, they have the same name and almost the same appearance but are very different persons.

The story is very different from the original one and while the beginning is in a few ways similar to the beginning of the series, the story unfolds and ends very differently.

Now that I did away with the wrong expectations you might have had, let's move on to what this movie actually is and does.

It takes some elements from the original series and inserts them into a brand new context, indeed it's important to have watched the original series and to be familiar with all those elements to appreciate it. This simply isn't a movie newcomers can watch. Newcomers cannot possibly appreciate the good parts of this movie. Period.

It's a noteworthy product that shows a rarely seen creativity. It's clearly an attempt to present an alternative, a more adult version of the same story. It's an extremely bold experiment that twists the characters' nature so much, old fans hated it. It perverted their idea of the characters, the setting and the story. It did violence to whatever they had liked in Escaflowne. However, why would Sunrise have to appeal to the fans of whatever they did before? There's no real reason why such a thing shouldn't have been done and fans only have themselves to blame for expecting more of the same. Sunrise wanted to do something different and thet's exactly what they did.

Now, it's absolutely true that this movie is full of holes and defects. The experiment was too bold and the limitations, especially the length, was too tight to allow for complete success. My point is, however, that while it does deserve quite a lot of negative criticism, it also holds a lot of beauty that deserves praise. It's a mixed bag and I'll try my hardest to do justice to all of it.

Animation

The animation and artwork are spellbinding and completely different from the series. The characters underwent a complete redesign; the cities are way different and so are the flying machines; everything appears more mature, on an artistic level that by any reasonable standard can only be judged way higher then anything the old series had to show. The animation itself is a lot more fluid than the original series' one.

Since in this new setting the "big armors", replacing mechas in Escalowne's world, are extremely rare -- there are exactly two in the whole world -- BONES and Sunrise made the very good decision to change them completely. Their movements and the effects on the surroundings are carefully studied to convey the sensation of a huge weight and an exceptional strength and while in the original series the armors already had an imposing presence and managed very well to communicate their strength to the viewer, in this movie the whole thing is brought up to an absolutely spectacular level. Words fail to express how scary those huge contraptions are.

The action scenes are plentiful and completely devoid of any kind of repetition; the quieter scenes are very pleasant to the eye and whenever they include any kind of landscape they are stunningly beautiful.

Sound

Yoko Kanno gave her all. There's not much else to say, it couldn't have been any better. Yoko Kanno is a great artist and during this movie her music shines.

The Japanese dubbers also did a very good jop, unsurprisingly.

Story

In this darker version of Escaflowne, Hitomi has lost any will to live. Incapable of giving her life any kind of meaning and equally incapable to end it, she lives as if sleeping until Folken appears to her and calls her to Gaea. In a surreal scene so well done that by itself it's enough to recommend the whole movie, Hitomi disappears from Earth and finds heself inside Escaflowne only moments before Van conquers it and opens it. The story begins.

This new story is much shorter. There's a war going on, which isn't the war we know from the original series, and both of the forces fighting each other are on the verge of obtaining the ultimate weapon, Escaflowne. Hitomi arrives while one of the forces, the one Van is fighting for, is stealing Escaflowne from the other. She plays her part and goes back to Earth. Nothing original, the plot is typical of the genre and the story, like the original series, is mainly a frame while the actual focus is on the characters.

Like most other movies based on previously aired series, this one also promises a lot and delivers little, e.g. the setting is enormous, but we only see a tiny part of it. Nevertheless, a careful eye can see that the movie has a lot to say. The key is to keep one's mind sharp and dissect every detail and every sentence with it, because the action scenes are many and the space reserved for the narration is little.

It's also true that many questions remain open after the ending, especially those about what Hitomi had to do with the story. She appears as a girl taken from Earth and dumped on Gaea for no good reason, just to provide a neck around which someone could put the magic pendant - which, again, is not the same as the pendant of the original series. This is certainly a great defect but it exists only because the movie is too short; what happens really couldn't have happened without her, the problem is that it isn't made clear enough why.

One last horrible thing is the way two cliches have been made part of the ending. Two cliches one could expect from Hollywood, but not from BONES and Sunrise.

Characters

The traits that distinguished the characters in the old series are now much more extreme.

Hitomi's inability to find a path to follow is making her feel deep anguish and regret, feelings that almost lead her to commit suicide. Van's thirst for revenge has turned into a blind thirst for blood and has led him to lose his path as well. Folken's will to lead Gaea to destruction is now central to whatever he does. The feelings of all the characters are all painted in the dark hues of violence against the world or violence against themselves, or both. Folken is now the felon, the evil character with no redeeming qualities. Van is a merciless killer, his gentle self buried long ago. Hitomi goes as far as writing goodbye letters to her closest friend, waiting for the chance to disappear.

The objective of the old series was to show Van and Hitomi getting closer and closer while Van's pure soul surfaces and Hitomi goes through the coming of age, finding her purpose in life - a common theme in anime series. This is the one thing the movie tried to keep, even making it central to the unfolding of the story; sadly, the progression happens in quick bursts distant from each other rather then gradually and appears unnatural. This is very sad indeed, because the link between the story and the characters' development would have been much more beautiful had such development been gradual. As it is, you can still kind of grasp the message: self destruction and the destruction of Gaea are one and the same and to save Gaea one must first and foremost save herself.

Personal judgment

I think this is a great movie giving a new interpretation of a beautiful series. While I acknowledge its shortfalls, I also think nobody could have done any better within those limits and I'm certainly glas they decided to make it anyway. This movie gave me both satisfactions and delusions but the generally positive attitude I usually have toward this kind of things lets me appreciate the whole experience as a very good one overall.

Overall

First of all, if you haven't watched the series just don't watch this unless you're interested in the animation or in Yoko Kanno's music.

I can't promise anything to those who saw the 1996 series, this movie certainly has enough shortfalls to be unsatisfying and even ugly to the eyes and brains of a lot of people, while others like me will appreciate it. It's a mixed bag and can only have mixed results depending on who watches it. I still want to recommend it, it doesn't take long to watch it nad it could be a pleasant surprise.