As soon as I finished watching this, I knew it had become my third favorite movie of all time. The characters are very cute, and I especially grew attached to them because they were cats. The animation and effects can be underwhelming but at the same time impressive for a 1985 anime.Giovanni is an anthropomorphic kitten who tackles a lot of responsibility since his mother is sick and his father is away, and to make his trouble harder, he is bullied at school. He has a friend called Campanella. I find it unfortunate that the friendship between Giovanni and Campanella isn't expressed very much. Campanella does do a "favor" for Giovanni at the beginning of the movie. (Giovanni didn't answer the teacher's question, and so Campanella didn't answer it either so that Giovanni doesn't seem stupid). But Campanella spends time with the cats who bully Giovanni and he doesn't seem to have any interest in spending time with Giovanni.After a seemingly ordinary introduction, the movie becomes a surreal and dreamlike adventure through mystical worlds of imagination. A galaxy train appears while Giovanni is resting on a hill and perhaps he is dreaming in some way. While he is on the train, Campanella slowly appears out of thin air and starts saying some mysterious things. Giovanni doesn't seem very bewildered considering what is going on. He asks questions but Campanella doesn't answer directly. The two of them ride the train together and sometimes other passengers appear / disappear.One of the passengers, a bird-catcher, has a sack of herons. When he opens the sack, the herons seem to be flat. When he takes a heron out, he pulls it leg off but it's not as morbid as it sounds. He gives a piece of the leg to both Giovanni and Campanella and it turns out the heron is candy. The scene where it shows the cat catching birds is really beautiful. It seems cruel at first, since the herons seem alive, but in your mind you know they're candy in some kind of way. When they land on the ground, they seem to dissolve.The scenery that the train crosses is full of magic and wonder. There's a place where magpies land in the trees and turn into apples, and a place where there's nothing but a cross in a weird blue sea of light. Many passengers appear out of nowhere apparently praying to the cross. Yes, there are Christian themes in this movie but that's one of the things that makes the movie so special. The movie revolves around heaven and that there are many different heavens, so I think including the Christian heaven was a good idea.A human passenger and the children he is guarding arrive. I think one of my favorite parts of the movie is when he talks about how he and the children died on a ship that crashed into an iceberg and sank. He talks about how he tried to decide what to do for the children as the ship was sinking... it really touched my heart for some reason. He is obviously a Christian since he mentions God and it makes me wonder, are Giovanni and Campanella Christians? They don't pray to the cross like the other passengers did when they passed it, and they didn't get off at the Christian heaven that the man and the two children get off at. Of course, this is just an idealistic movie, but there are many questions you can ask and it's interesting to think about the movie and come up with your own answers.Soon Giovanni and Campanella are the only two passengers on the train. Giovanni talks about how they'll always be together, and Campanella seems sad. He tears up but Giovanni doesn't seem to notice. Then it's time for Campanella to go to "his" heaven, where he says his mother is waiting. He leaves Giovanni without saying much else besides goodbye, and he doesn't seem to be sad as he leaves poor Giovanni alone and crying. I think the music it plays during this scene is very unfitting. It seems like happy or action music; I think it would be a lot better if they put sad music or even no music all so it doesn't disrupt viewers from reflecting these events in their mind.In the real world, Campanella has drowned. It's a pretty devastating ending but Giovanni says he knows Campanella is out there and that they will always be together... even though he's in his own heaven far far away. Will Giovanni enter that heaven too when he dies? I'm not sure if it's implied in the movie.Anyway, this is a wonderful movie. It manages to have death, heaven, and religion as themes while being about two cute colorful kittens. It's beautiful and creative, opens up your imagination, and touches your heart. It's also depressing.If you're after comedy or action, this movie isn't for you. But if you don't mind a long, deep, sentimental film with an upsetting ending and some religious references, you need to watch this movie. It's a masterpiece.

Being Japanese and having a Korean immigrant to Japan as a father and a Japanese mother, I grew up surrounded by Japanese culture--- including anime. Sometime when I was a toddler, my parents showed me this movie and I loved it, although back then I didn't understand much of it. I have no idea why... I just loved it. And to this day, I think it's beautiful.It's slow paced, and it isn't for some people. But I think this is a very deep movie that moved my heart. Revolving around the lives of two cats living in a strange, Spanish or Italian-looking town, this movie is no doubt very dreamlike and seems like a dream I would have.A very deep, sad movie which lets the viewer choose their own ending... this is a fantastic movie that lets you contemplate the meaning of life. A lot of the best scenes are the quiet ones... such as the way it showed that Giovanni was crying, without showing his face. Or how they showed how 'left out' Giovanni felt by showing Campanella and the girl's mouths move but no sound come out. I also loved the music. Sometimes it's eerie, sometimes it's merry. Either way, I love it. Oh, and one more thing... everything in this movie is in Esperanto. Just if you were interested Great movie that everyone, not just anime fans, should watch.

The best thing about this movie is the dreamlike quality of it. Lots of fiction texts--novels, comicbooks, movies, whatever--take place in the world of dreams, but this is the first movie I've seen that really felt like it. Things happen one after the other in a drifting, diffuse pilgrimage on a train that goes to the end of the universe: migrating herons that fall to the earth and turn into candy, apples that reproduce themselves, an Italian village populated by cats. Being that they're passing through the night sky, some of the stations are named after constellations, and some are just...places. It's like reading The Old Man and the Sea--you feel like you're there for days and wake up to find that it was only a few hours. To me, that's a measure of a really good story.One of the funnier bits was when the human characters appeared and didn't bat an eye at sitting next to anthropomorphic, pastel-coloured cats.If you enjoy picking apart movie texts, you can always have a fun argument with your friends about the religious motifs that pop up in an oddball way throughout the story. Were the filmmakers taking stabs at Christianity, or just appropriating its symbols for the story's own kind of mysticism (a la Neon Genesis Evangelion, maybe)?

The first time I watched this movie I had to see it in two parts because my friend got sick of it after the first half. This movie is definitely not for everyone. The pacing is extremely slow and thoughtful. If your not the sort of person who spends time contemplating the mysteries of life, you will not enjoy this movie. If you watch this movie, don't watch it by yourself. Find a friend who you think might enjoy it, and set aside a quite relaxed evening to watch it. You will want someone to talk it over with afterwards.One thing that must be noted is the character design. You may be initially turned off by the extremely cute, childish-looking characters. It doesn't take long to realize that the film is much darker and deeper than it seems at first.Something to think about when viewing this film: It's interesting to see the strong use of Christian imagery in this film. I can't help but feel that as a westerner I'm getting a different reaction than the primarily Buddhist original audience and perhaps losing a bit of the mysticism.I would suggest this film to anyone who enjoys spending a quiet evening lost in thought.