Sea Prince and the Fire Child - Reviews

Another one of those works you could easily misplace for cartoon. Legend of Sirius is an oldie most don’t remember, yet it packs a lot of magic and artistic expression despite its years. In fact, for a family movie it is quite unorthodox as it is not cheery and easygoing.

As most who have watched and commented it, I also see it as a crossbreed between the fairy tale of The Little Mermaid and Shakespeare’s novel of Romeo and Juliet. The visuals are quite close to those of Walt Disney’s version of the Little Mermaid. Everything looks full of life and movement, with vivid motions, and perky grimaces. The Sea World in particular is amazing with its set of unique house features, sea creatures and underwater temple. The Fire Land is not shown as much and lacks the focus of the sea but it is still quite unique at its presentation as well.

I must point out that it could look a lot better than it does. The animators preferred a very stylish and simple way of depicting the characters, yet you see in the ending credits the original sketches. Frankly, the movie is wonderful to look but it is not exotic enough as you may expect for an otherworld setting. The original imagery was much closer to Norse mythology than central Europe modern cartoons, so it kind of looks inferior to the original.

Still, for what it shows it feels quite epic and inspiring, with worlds colliding, tsunamis and huge fireballs and eclipses, heavenly sunrays, and omnipresent elemental Gods, accompanied by orchestra music pieces, full of angst and raw power, conveying feelings in a flash. And they do so in a lot more successful way than most modern series and movies do.

Still, don’t be fooled to think that the movie is just like Walt Disney’s Little Mermaid. If you didn’t know, the normal ending of the fairy tale is not a happy one. Several characters die in it, despite looking cheery enough to believe they do not deserve to die. And in the Japanese fashion, there are lesbian tendencies in one of the characters. Plus, although the story features a bad guy, he is never shown doing anything. He is already defeated by the beginning of the film. In fact, all the conflict in the movie revolves around the aftereffects of his scheme, and not a scheme that can be avoided by defeating him. So, yeah, it feels quite original to have a story where two sides are not separated in good and evil and don’t even try to defeat the big bad as an objective for a good ending. The bad guy is gone, yet the two sides refuse to forgive one another.

Just in the case of Romeo and Juliet, it is about selfishness and egoism and not some clear-cut ideal of righteousness. Still, the ending is not a complete tragedy just like in the case of Romeo and Juliet. It is very sad but has its spark of hope.

In all, this movie is almost a must for all retro lovers and people who can still appreciate an animated drama. To be honest, it is a lot better to see it as art and on an emotional level and not as a complete story on a logical level. The scenario is quite simple in all and has an almost dualistic approach to everything. Plus, the ending is a bit forced, with unknown powerful magic doing all the work and love breaking the fabric of reality just like that. Still, if you don’t try to reason everything it is a wonderful family movie, far better than most of Walt Disney’s classics, as it is not politically correct and does not pass the idea that evil is external to the heroes and personified enough to be killed and get rid of that easily.

SUGGESTION LIST
Windaria
Romeo X Juliet

The story is pretty much a Romeo and Juliet style with elemental gods instead of humans. This makes me have mixed feelings. While the story is so old and pretty much exactly what you would expect of the tale, I do like the gods a bit. Sadly, it was not enough to save the story as it felt bland in both voice acting and artwork. It just doesn’t pop at all and I felt myself becoming bored while watching it as there was no surprise, no special meaning behind any of it.

The artwork is pretty beautiful but it is far from perfect. While the watercolors and special backgrounds pop, the characters seem to feel a little lack luster. The design of the characters feel like they are bland. Malta has only a small hint of wearing something although she is pretty much nude to a point and her limbs are just think sticks compared to her body with rather strange eyes that seem to be overly slanted. On the other hand, Sirius has thin limbs too but with rather clumpy looking ‘feet’ and hands. It makes me wish they were beautiful images like in the credits but sadly, they don’t fit the background at all.

The voices… oh boy the voices… They have no feeling what so ever in their words and Malta’s voice is just overly high pitched. It’s a sad dub that makes me wish that I watched the Japanese version but the show was so bland to me that I don’t want to watch it again.

went into this not knowing that it was based on Romeo and Juliet. rest assured act three hit me like a freight train and i cried for a solid five minutes afterwards. a whimsical tragedy, we stan Malta. character designs and animation are so pretty <3