I've never written a review like this before, but after seeing the Brazilian animated feature "Boy Meets World" (PG, 1:20), I had almost no idea what I had just seen! There must've been something of quality up on that screen because this movie won plenty of film festival awards – both in the U.S. and overseas – and was a nominee at the 88th Annual Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film… but I'm still at a loss. In the year before I saw this movie, I had seen and reviewed 250 films (and 400 in the previous three years) and many of them were… "unusual" – American indies, foreign films from all over the world, films that were highly symbolic, films with plot holes, films in which the chronology of the story jumped all over the place, films with open-ended finales, etc., but none of those experiences prepared me for this one. But I do enjoy a challenge, so I'm still going to take a shot at describing this movie… Animated images, hand-drawn by writer-director Alê Abreu, tell the story of a small boy named Cuca who lives in a remote village in a fictional Latin American country. Cuca's father packs his suitcase and takes a train to the big city to find work. Cuca feels lonely and doesn't understand what his life has become, so he also packs a suitcase and takes the same train in search of his father. What unfolds before Cuca's eyes is a bewildering cornucopia of sights and sounds – from glittering skyscrapers to local musicians to an ominous-looking formation of soldiers marching in the streets. Little Cuca navigates this unfamiliar terrain with the help of a kind stranger, determined to find his father and reunite his family.Most of the images are simple line drawings, but they are very colorful, and there are bits of photo-realistic imagery mixed in with some of the scenes. While the boy's only facial features are oblong black eyes and rosy cheeks, the background of every scene contains a wide variety of shapes and colors. The shots of the train, for example, look like an animated photo of a train and the street signs in the big city are cropped, upside-down photos of what look like actual street signs. There is very little dialog and what's there is backwards Portuguese… but there's plenty of interesting music. Accompanying the varied imagery are examples of similarly varied Latin American musical styles, including pan-flute, samba and Brazilian hip-hop. In this film, the music is every bit as essential as the diverse and stunning visuals."Boy and the World" is an animated journey like no other, but would have been better if it were easier to understand. The basic story is easy enough to follow, but most of what happens along the way left me trying to figure out what I was seeing. The story is being told through the eyes of a boy who looks to be about four-years-old. Thinking about it that way, the movie makes sense. Unfortunately, I am not a four-year-old boy from a remote Brazilian village, so most of the movie didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The director has said that he sees his film as a documentary of the history of Latin America. I didn't get that, although his efforts at contrasting urban vs. rural, rich vs. poor, and innocence vs. victimization do come across in a subtle and meaningful way. And, admittedly not to be lost in all this is a little boy's efforts to bring his family together again, and discovering the big, bad, confusing, wonderful world in the process. In spite of my own problems in watching this film, there is no diminishing the impressive creativity and artistry that went into making it… and maybe, at the end of the day (or the end of this review), that's all that really matters. "B-"

This is an amazing animation film! There are many reasons to say that and I will list just a few of them: 1) the film is really touching, captivating, and clever 2) it was able to, more then just telling a story, showing the feelings and impressions of a child, 3) animation is extremely beautiful and innovative at once, as it mixes different techniques and clearly deviates from the styles commonly used (it is also impressive how, with simple lines, we can recognize facial expressions), 4) editing and animating is impressive, showing details and angles which surprise spectator (I loved the scenes of movement showing its impact on environment and what the character sees or thinks and not the boy or the train), 5) it is a brutal representation of social problems and inequalities and the outcomes of capitalism, 6) the metaphors for regional or class contrasts are great, 7) the fantastic use of music throughout the movie is really important for the story, 8) the graphic representation of each part of cotton production is awesome, 9) the journey of the leading character seeking his father and making a living is an unconventional road movie that shows an awesome variety of places (countryside, crowded big city, factory, slum, beach...), particularly if you consider the stylised kind of draw, 10) the not obvious alternations between reality and imagination, past and present, is quite sophisticated, 11) the film mocks about all the vices of advertising and television, 12) there is no need of dialogs or texts and it motivates a joke that is repeated along the film: the advertisements have meaningless texts and the dialogs, although in Portuguese, are backwards, not being understandable for both Brazilians or non-Portuguese speakers, 13) important sociological processes are competently shown in the film, such as migrations between city and countryside, and the effects of both Fordism and automation. To resume: just watch it, and will never forget.

The Boy and The World has been one of my best discoveries in recent times. A movie that tells its story not through words but music, colours and the eyes of a young boy with a sense of wonder and innocence. The two dimensional animation did nothing if not alleviate the visual thrill that the movie was. A boy's imaginations were carefully captured that went apace with his emotions.The story is about our young boy who sets out to seek his father who had to leave to work in the city. But on his journey, the boy finds many more facets of life that he had never experienced. He sees life as it could never have been in his imaginations. It is his survival through all the changes, which he never welcomed or run away from, that meets him in his lifelong quest for his father. It maybe a poignant piece for many viewers, but it is the 'hope' of the better world, which is born anew every time it is vanquished, made the movie marvellous.Ale Abreu has not only produced a masterpiece, but also, I am sure, has given us that long overdue movie which vibrates in me as a symphony of life.

First of all - make sure you are full of energy when sitting down watching this movie.The movie will bring you into a whole new world. Absolutely unknown ways of expressing landscapes, people, feelings, war, nature. An artistic visual trip that'll have shapes, figures and structures staying in your mind while I had hardships following the plot and understand the jumps from certain scenes to next ones and jumps in time.I don't think the movie is even close to my animation favourites from Studio Ghibli (Howl's Moving Castle, Grave of Fireflies, etc.) or for example the movie Waltz with Bashir but I recommend the movie for those who love new solutions and ideas in visual art and animation movies.