ANI-MOVIES, *The Wonderland

Originally titled Birthday Wonderland, this feature was based on Sachiko Kashiwaba's children's book from 1988. Keiichi Hara from Doraemon directed this for Warner Bros. Japan, even though it didn't get a wide American theatrical release, which has widely been seen as being a Studio Ghibli wannabe film.

Akane is a middle schooler feeling left out of her friends' social circle, and decides to spend the day before her birthday at home pretending to be sick. Her mother sends her on an errand to a family friend Chii, who runs her own nick-nack store. While there, Akane accidently put her hand on an old clay handprint, which summons a mysterious top-hatted man appears from Chii's basement calling himself Hippocrates along with his fairy companion. Akane is labeled as the chosen Green Goddess meant to save this alternative world from running out of water, so she and Chii travel to this magical realm that somehow diverted into its own timeline due to interdimensional spiders capable of creating pathways to different worlds. Once in this "wonderland", our heroes' enthusiasm changes as Chii wants to explore it, but Akane merely wishes to return to her own world.

The movie does have some stunning character designs, colorful backgrounds, and an endearing soundtrack. The plot and character development though seriously drags in this near 2-hour long movie, making it seem more amateurish for such a lavish visual production. The Wonderland is a decent screening for a lazy Sunday afternoon, but not exactly worth going out of your way for.