ANI-MOVIES, *Night On The Galactic Railroad

Group TAC broke into animation with their Japanese motion picture of Jack And The Beanstalk in 1974 but they wouldn't return to another full-length theatrical release until 1985 with Night On The Galactic Railroad. Based on the mid-20th Century novel by Kenji Miyazawa which was published posthumously by the creator, the fantasy story might seem like they were channeling into the future to Leiji Matsumoto's Galaxy Express 999 franchise about a space train, but if anything Matsumoto was influenced by Miyazawa's work. The anime movie takes an anthropomorphic perspective as the majority of it has the characters as bipedal felines wearing some human attire similar to vintage cartoon characters. This approach might appeal to some replacing the cast with cartoon cats even though it does add to the fantasy theme of the film.

In a version of Earth where the people are cats, young Giovanni is constantly teased by the kids in school for having his father away for long fishing trips. The holiday of the Centaurus Festival is a take on the Japanese celebration of Tanabata highlighting the early summer view of the night sky where Giovanni plans to meet up with his friends after running an errand for his ill mother. On his way back home he stops in the middle of a field to see the stars as a train suddenly appears where Giovanni finds his best friend Campanella is already onboard who claims he is travelling to meet up with his mother. The train takes off for space where the two kittens meet all manner of bizarre but friendly cats either as fellow passengers or on visits to intergalactic stopovers. Halfway through the movie, the train is boarded by a young human tutor and his two charges, a brother and sister, all of which died in a shipwreck. The train goes to different versions of the afterlife plus other realities where Giovanni sees an alternate of himself. Campanella disembarks off the train to be with his mother who is revealed to be in Heaven leaving Giovanni to himself on the train. The kitten wakes up back in the field he started from and learns that in the waking world Campanella fell into a river and supposedly drowned to death, although Giovanni believes that his friend went to be reunited with his mother.

Astro Boy veteran director Gisaburo Sugii displays his seasoned style in a colorful animated production. It is filled with several perspectives on life, the afterlife, religion, and the viewer's point of view compared to the rest of the universe. One of the few drawbacks to this though is that some parts can go on for impractically longer than normal like in an early scene where the movie takes five whole minutes of Giovanni working at his part-time job at a print shop. The film has breathtaking imagery and is a heartfelt all-ages tribute to the author Kenji Miyazawa who interestingly got his own biography covered by Group TAC a decade later in an animated TV special titled Spring And Chaos where the real life people are also portrayed by cartoon cats.