Sing a Bit of Harmony - Reviews

It's fun to watch. Just not the singing part. Expecting everything to be fine just because you sang is RIDICULOUS. It's making me cringe to the point that I dropped it.

Una sorpresa inesperada en forma de cancion...

Emotiva, bien animada, con unas canciones pal recuerdo...hay pocos peros que poner a esta peli pero si tengo que decir algunos dire que su trama es un tanto predecible y que algunos personajes secundarios siento que estan puestos con calzador. 

En resumen, la pelicula fue una gratisima sopresa que gracias a sus canciones y Shion me haran recordarla durante una buena temporada. 

La recomendaria? Si.

This movie was refreshing to watch. How AI is perceived in a future society seemed realistic and charming. The colors were bright and the music kept me invested. The story was charming and adorable. The ending left me satisfied. I will definitely be refering this movie to friends!

I must confess that one of the songs was so catchy that I listen to it on Spotify from time to time.

J C Staff’s 2021 sci fi fantasy was written and directed by the very talented Yasuhiro Yoshiura who gave us the exceptionally brilliant “Time of Eve” in 2008 and “Paterma Inverted” in 2012. With him in charge you know there is potential for something just a little bit special. Certainly the critics agreed and the film was warmly greeted by them and audiences alike. “Sing a Bit of Harmony” is a story that blends Spielberg’s “ET” with Disney Princess musicals and an AI robot in an anime Highschool romance. That is quite a trick to pull off but this works pretty neatly. The danger with this format is that some in the audience may fear that it is a musical and switch off. This would be a mistake. Unlike “real” musicals this film actually embeds the reason why the robot sings as an integral part of the plot. The story, as so often, is set in a school amongst a bunch of teenagers and is centred upon a melancholy girl called Satomi Amano. She is having a hard time as many students are ostracising her for breaching that unwritten school-yard rule about not snitching on other students to teachers. Satomi’s single-Mum (Mitsuko) is team-lead in a robotics research department at a local company. They are about to field-trial their latest creation – a robot in the form of a teenage girl. They are going to drop the robot in as a transfer student at Satomi’s school without letting the school know the true nature of what this new student is. This is a version of the famous Turin test – if nobody guesses she is a robot then the trial is deemed a success.

The problems start from day one when the robot girl (“Shion Ashimori”) inexplicably recognises Satomi and makes it clear that she has made it her mission is to make the melancholy girl happy. Much of this mission appears to involve launching into impromptu musical numbers and dressing Satomi up as a princess. This eccentric behaviour is a mystery to the small group who befriend Shion. After one of them, the technical geeky character (and love interest) Touma, accidentally switches Shion off the kids realise what their new classmate really is. Realising that Shion is her mum’s experiment, Satomi makes them all swear to not reveal the truth. What follows is a classic fantasy adventure involving drama, romance and a lot of humour. It builds and builds bringing together a bunch of plot threads into a really satisfying story line. Nothing in this tale happens without a reason and is, at times, perfectly magical. If Spielberg did Disney this is what it would look like. The movie climax is pure Hollywood as the kids run around inside a robot lab on their desperate rescue mission. The hi-tech nature of the romp never gets in the way of genuine human emotions. The plot is also littered with satisfying moments when the AI manipulates the environment to make the humans around her happy. Shion is utterly naive and may not really understand what human happiness is but, by jove, she is going to try really hard at making this work. The results are often hilarious yet this is a movie with a gentle soul. It may never be too emotional but it has a sweetness to it that brings a rosy shine to all who watch it. There is tremendous warmth here to the point where it is all so genuinely touching. Not quite as profound as “Time of Eve” – it is more an entertaining adventure for younger adults – yet this works on all the levels intended. At last, a Highschool Musical it is OK to like. Just remember: it isn’t a musical – right? Simply adorable.