animator Yoshiyuki Momose directs an enchanting, but lightweight, fantasy adventure. What happens to your imaginary friends when you grow up? , the charming new animated film from Studio Ponoc (a new-ish anime house full of ex-Ghibli talent), suggests they don’t disappear, they just..
. go somewhere else. That somewhere else is a library where all the abandoned imaginary friends of the world gather to take safe haven amongst others like them, and protect themselves from a mysterious man that seems to be stalking and eating them.
Except, Rudger wasn’t abandoned or forgotten by his person. Instead, his creator Amanda has been run over by a car and lays comatose in a hospital, her fading spirit causing Rudger’s very existence to be endangered. It’s only when he’s lead by talking cat to this library that he’s able to stop from disappearing — but he soon learns that the man who caused Amanda’s accident may be the mysterious enemy of the Imaginaries, and his eyes are set on Rudger.
Directed by Yoshiyuki Momose, whose animation credits on Hayao Miyazaki’s have been a large part of the marketing for this movie, certainly feels like a cousin to Studio Ghibli movies. It’s sweet. It’s whimsical.
It’s got dazzling visuals and jaw-dropping fantastical moments that tip over into phantasmagoria. And it’s got a deeper emotional undercurrent that speaks to greater themes of grief and growing up. But while the film boasts some truly impressive animation from Studio Pon.
