Suzume: Beautiful Visuals In A Frustrating Story

Every once in a while there will be a film that can push the limits of what animation can do. This year, the entry that does that the best so far is Suzume. That said, there are a considerable amount of issues that could impact how someone views the movie from a narrative standpoint, the most irritating of which are the ones that are entirely avoidable with simple realignments of screen time.

Suzume follows the titular Suzume as she discovers the ability to see these large manifestations of evil that live beneath Japan and are trying to escape through abandoned doors and destroy everything. She meets with Sota, a boy from Tokyo who also can see these doors and is trying to close them all to keep the manifestations of evil from escaping, and goes on a journey with him to help him on his mission after a mystical cat turns him into an anthropomorphic chair.

The best thing about the movie is the visuals and the sound mix which blend 2D and 3D animation in a unique way that will keep viewers engaged through the entire runtime. The level of detail in both the background and the character design is unparalleled and it is what Makoto Shinkai (Your Name and Weathering With You) does best. The sound mix also lends itself to a theatrical viewing experience which makes this movie a must-see in theaters.

That said, several plot threads do not exactly work. What it is that makes Suzume able to see these manifestations of evil is never really explained and Sota is confused as to the fact that she is able to because every other person Sota has encountered who has the ability is related to him in some way. The death of Suzume’s mother as a child is kind of teased to be integral to the story but it ends up not being relevant in the third act resolution. The cat Daijin has a “twist” towards the end of the movie that is the textbook example of something that had it been told with one line of dialogue at the beginning of the movie would not have caused the rest of the movie to happen the way it does.

Beyond that, the first act is entirely designed to lay out the narrative foundation for the main plot of the movie, however, the third act is reliant on the resolution of emotional arcs that do not reflect where the movie begins. The easiest example of this is the Aunt/Suzume’s legal guardian being portrayed as “overbearing” and her apologizing for it when the only time she crosses that line is when Suzume functionally runs away from home after lying about where she’s going. At the beginning of the movie, the viewer is introduced to the Aunt by telling Suzume that she’s going to be working late and she should go out and get her own dinner. The emotional arcs hit their end because they’re expected to, not because they’re earned.

At the end of the day, while the plot may blend elements from Kingdom Hearts, World of Final Fantasy, and just a hint of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the visuals more than make up for it and make Suzume a worthwhile viewing experience. It is currently playing in theaters as both Japanese with English subtitles and as an English voice dub and, due to the quality of the visuals, the English dub is probably the better way to watch the movie.

Final Rating: 7/10