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Highly Overrated But Still Good

Brilliant and touching

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A little sweet animation from South America. The official entry from Uruguay for the best foreign language film at the 2014 Oscars, but did not make into the final. This is the story of a little school girl, Anina, followed by a fight she has got into, as a punishment she and the other girl gets each a sealed letter from the school principal to safeguard until the further notice. Through those days what she learns and how it comes to end leads to the final segment of the story.Well intended story, but a bit lacks the cheerfulness. I mean in some parts it falls short in development and keeps it dull mood. Especially in the early mid parts, but later on till the conclusion, it's got a better. Visually, its stunning on its own way, surely an impressive animation, but overall film was short as 80 minutes. Adapted from a children's novel and beautifully made.For me, I think they should have been a bit careful. There's nothing problem in the story, sketches or in the pace, but the overall flow was not sparkling enough like those Hollywood counterparts. Other than those tiny stumbles, this is a fine animation, especially being a non North America, Europe and Japan product. Not a must see, but I don't find any strong reason to skip it, particularly for the animation fans.6.5/10

I waited this since 2013. At some point I stopped searching information about it. I recently found out it has been available English subbed since late 2015's. I watched it in the same day and well.. I was disappointed. Originally I wanted to see it for the art -because let's face it: that poster picture of the movie looks absolutely fabulous. The art was good and animation too. Since I enjoy simplicity, I liked how it looked, but everything else was.. meh. The movie is clearly aimed for children under 5 years of age, and it really didn't have any magic to offer to adult audience -unlike most animation movies do. The story centers around this girl who the movie got its title from: Anina. Her life is pretty sad because her name is lame as Anina is aninA also when written backwards. Everyone who isn't 5 of course knows such trivial matters don't actual mean anything. The movie is supposed to be about some self-discovery, but actually it was about boring children being children, having bad characteristics and nothing more. I didn't enjoy it.

Being that animation is not something usual in the Uruguay film industry I was highly interested in watching this movie. So I rented it, with some expectations already, knowing that it was nominated for several awards. I was still impressed by what this cinematographic piece achieved.First of all, the story is really simple, but original and well put together. Most of the characters are fun and have certain charm (save for Anina's crush and best friend, which are very bland). It has a somewhat surreal tone but still bases itself upon the childhood memories the people behind this film could have had. The soundtrack isn't particularly memorable, but it does the job.The voice acting (I'm talking about the Spanish version) is really solid and breathes life into the characters. However (sigh) the animation is the weakest part of this great package. It's not awful, but it is somewhat mediocre. The art style is beautiful and yet the characters move poorly. This is were the lack of budget is more evident. Overall, if you could find this movie, give it a shot. You probably will appreciate it for what it is. Keep in mind that it is the product of a different culture and therefore another reality.

*****No spoilers here until alert*****If you already watched this movie you may think its weird, that the characters can't really exist in real life and they don't have such behavior anywhere in the planet. You may also think the scenario may not be something you've seen before. Well, let me tell you something, actually, everything in this movie is so Uruguayan that it's out of the ordinary. I really mean "everything". When I watched this I couldn't believe how precise it was to real Uruguayan lifestyle, most likely in the 80s and early 90s The buses shown in the movie are the same buses we took in those golden school-times. Kids ride in the same public transportation as everyone else. "School buses" that you see in American movies didn't exist. The bus tickets, with the "return" message (which means the bus is returning to departure point), is an exact replica of bus tickets of that time, which never changed until electronic ticket machines were implemented in the 2000s.Anina also collected bus tickets with palindrome numbers, something very common among Uruguayan kids (I particularly lost my collection, my school mates might still have theirs tho, I can imagine)The houses, the streets, the school, the costumes, the autumn gray skies are also typical from Uruguay. The grocery store, (whose owner lets you take things and pay later, just as in real life) things are shown exactly as they exist today. The school teachers irresponsibility during skirmish between the kids was (and is) a quite common hot topic in between school directors and parents. The old ladies, neighbors of the Yatay Salas family, were also perfectly represented to the typical old ladies neighbors of this placeThe only thing I'm afraid that the movie falls short is the fact that in the private school I had a much worse experience in bullying. Uruguay actually is the kingdom of bullying at school, specially because teachers don't really care and there's no regulations that try to avoid it, unless something goes too far. You just get your parent's advise to be strong and hit back. Also the movie focus on a state ("public") school, which is without charge in Uruguay (as they are in the USA, founded by taxation), and seems to me that is shown much more warmer than in reality. Even the school director is too good to be true, but it may be just me.The plot itself isn't too complicated, as its focused on Anina's mind, which is just a child's mind with a lot of imagination, everything from her perspective. Think about Miyasaky's Spirited Away (an excellent animated movie by the way), but much shorter, much simpler, and real. The only fictional imagination scenes comes from Anina's dreams.*******Spoilers alert begin here*******Another thing that is real, and hit us hard, was emigration. The movie sensitive momentum where our hearts are touched and broken. As a lot of Uruguayans emigrated all over the world seeking for better opportunities that our own country didn't gave. I dare to tell that if nobody did emigrated, our nation would be twice as big in population as it is today.After all, Uruguay is a 3rd world country. Its lifestyle may be decent. But not for everyone, and not everyone has a chance, leaving only one option: to leave the countrySome may just seek for a better life but one thing is for certain: no one wants to leave Uruguay, but at the same time, most Uruguayans who left are not willing to return just to find themselves in the same poverty of a emaciated hopeless medium class they abandoned when they emigrated, and also find themselves in a boring, useless country like Uruguay. If you live in Uruguay, a quiet place with a high quality education, beautiful landscapes and decent living, you really don't mind if you have just 100 dollars left for the rest of the month. But many think otherwise.Australia is one of the top nations with the highest rate of Uruguayans immigrants. Gysele's father sent her daughter postcards telling her how she missed her. I almost cried because my mother, my sister, and my brother also emigrated, for one reason or another. Actually pretty bitter.The movie has no dub in English language, which is a shame, because if your kids don't read the won't be able to understand. Nevertheless, I recommend this movie to anyone wanting to know, in just 70 minutes or so, how Uruguayan kids were raised, how they feel and act. It's a nice story, the animation and art is superb, the sound quality is superb. I personally loved every minute of it.