ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

datautisticgamer-74853 Like The Prophet and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, this movie was a gift from my brother, who I viewed it with today. Given it was an adaptation of a Japanese children's book, we hadn't any idea what to expect. Almost all the way through the movie, my mind was all over the place from all the deep thought-provoking ideas it presents us with. The assortment of strange symbols, like all the Atari style vector graphics that appear periodically across much of the plot, left me absolutely confounded. The story was superbly adapted from its source aside from making the characters cats, although this is an artistic liberty that I appreciate in the sense that it gives it a rather distinct identity. It was certainly told better than The Prophet was. The characters left me in just as much confusion as everything else that occurred, since I never really understood why they, say, just vanish from this train that is supposed to represent a path to the afterlife. They were all fascinating nonetheless, especially given that I almost immediately recognized Giovanni as sounding like 4Kids Ash Ketchum. The animation most certainly shows its age due to 1985 CGI and areas that lean more monochrome to be cost effective, but it does a fair job of depicting what the characters of Fantastic Mr. Fox would describe as a mental and psychological "cluster cuss". The "monochrome" parts do also offer some of the most creepy and amazing parts of this film. What I can say overall is that if you do watch this film, prepare for absolute mystification from all its concepts. Personally, I appreciated it, though casual animation buffs should heed the following advisory: you may completely miss important stuff from this film because it puts you in thought nearly all the way through. Your emotions may also roller-coaster, as mine did. I would recommend it overall, especially for cat fans, anime otaku and fantasy fundamentalists. For others, though, I would keep my aforementioned advisory in mind.

Shawn Watson An unfinished Japanese children's story from 1927 in the "Metaphysical & Visionary" section of a bookstore is hardly going to be noticed no matter what the current trend is. We've plowed through magic, supernatural romance, and now dystopian YA fiction in the past decade but something so offbeat is only going to be known to those who look REALLY hard for it. Kenji Miyazawa's (who died of pneumonia at the age of 37) Night on the Galactic Railroad was adapted into this equally obscure and mind-boggling Anime movie that feels like a cross between David Lynch and Studio Ghibli. Trying to figure out what exactly is going on is an exercise in pointlessness as the film is mainly to be enjoyed for its enormously cryptic sense of wonder and quiet epicnness.On a planet populated by cats living in an almost-perfect early 20th century society a young kitten with a lonely and difficult life called Giovanni is whisked away across the Milky Way on a mysterious and completely empty locomotive. Along the way numerous enigmatic passengers materialize and disappear, including Giovanni's only friend Campanella, who he slowly realizes has died and is being taken to heaven. This is not My Neighbor Totoro, this is dark, brooding, depressing stuff. Not many children are going to be entertained by this.Directed by Anime icon Gisaburo Suuji this film is surrealist, psychedelic, dreamlike, disembodied, abandoned, existential, and overwhelmingly puzzling. It's a fusion of Christian, Buddhist, and Salvador Dali imagery on acid. It has a captivating and haunting vibe that I know for sure influenced both Chris Van Allsburg and Robert Zemeckis when they wrote and directed The Polar Express. The sudden appearance of the train, the unexpected magical journey, a downbeat hero who needs to overcome his sadness...there's no way that it's just a coincidence.A fun time it is not. An extremely singular viewing experience it most certainly is.

rossodell-871-150354 In researching this movie before I watched it, I noted some mention of Christian themes, and assumed that there would be some recurring religious motifs in it, something on the order of the Matrix. However, I was wholly unprepared for the almost abusively forward religious imagery that seems to randomly crop up. Accordingly, this is just a general warning to other viewers, that if giant galactic crosses and esperanto hymns aren't your thing, you may want to skip this. I can't in good conscience rate this lower than a 5, because (as every other reviewer has noted) this is still a terribly beautiful movie, with heart-wrenching scenes and a fine message. But seriously, the Christianity pops up all over the place, and just when you think "oh, that's not so bad, I can ignore that part," everyone starts talking about praising god again.

dennis70 Gisaburo Sugii sure has had a eclectic career, starting out with children's fare like Jack and The Beanstalk. Here he takes Kenji Miyazawa's children's story and creates a living atmosphere. While highly detailed backgrounds are nothing new for anime, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" combines its finely crafted images with a brilliant use of frame shots, pacing, and audio montage to create a surreal and ethereal viewing experience. If I tell you that this is the same guy who did Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie you wouldn't believe it, right? Well it is the same person. But this is without any doubt his best film. I have never had such an experience with an animated movie before (I particularly dislike most of anime) but this was enlightening. A must see.