LogFAQs > #940974970

29. Liz and the Blue Bird

Karo: 12
Jona: 20
Red: 25
Inviso: 30
Genny: 31
Johnbobb: 32
Charon: 33

Total: 183

Karo: What It Is:
A lot of a really pretty almost-lesbians play musical instruments.

What I Think:
This beautifully animated movie is about two schoolgirls in the music club and their changing relationship as they grow up and move on with their lives.
There is a story within a story (animated in a different ghibli-esque art style) that is actually a metaphor for the relationship of the girls, and how one of them is being too clingy and needs to free the trapped bird if you will.
It is just very cute and simple and heartfelt and makes you feel good inside.

Score: 80/100

Jona: The simplicity of the movie is its greatest strength, with it just focusing on two characters who get a lot of development and relationship time. The movie started to feel too on-the-nose with comparing their relationship to the story of Liz and the Blue Bird, a book within the movie. I kinda hated how so much was explained and analyzed about this fictional story within the movie. The movie does all of this to set up the twist and I thought that was fine despite not being mind-blowing. I do like how the scenes of Liz and the Blue Bird in Liz and the Blue Bird looked though. The movie also felt really low-stakes even compared to other slice of life films. I wouldnt blame someone if they just thought the movie was boring and a waste of their time. The fact that this is also a spin-off did nothing for me and there were some cameo scenes that felt distracting. Despite all my complaints, I still enjoyed the characters and focus of the movie.

Red: While there is a bit of enjoyable twist with the Blue Bird plot than you might have been expecting, this movie still suffers pretty badly from being, well, boring. We know the gist of where the ending is heading, we even know where the little blue bird intro is heading, but it feels like it takes forever to get there. The characters just arent interesting and their personalities are dulled to the point where they dont exist much beyond their attachment to each other.

Inviso: This movie was boring as fuck. Like, its less than 90 minutes when you remove the credits from the runtime, and it STILL felt like it dragged on for AGES. Part of that is the fact that I dislike BOTH of the main characters. Weve seen what feel like a lot of movies with the general theme of a socially awkward person kinda having to deal with life as a socially awkward person, and there may or may not be a social butterfly around to help them out. In this case, the social butterfly comes across as a flaky, self-centered bitch, while the socially-awkward girl comes across as a creepy stalker. As a result, Im not rooting for either one, and the big, transformative moment when the stalker realizes shes talented and is more than just the popular girls shadowfalls very flat. Additionally, the throughline of the Liz and the Blue Bird story does very little to add to an otherwise extremely flat and boring slice-of-life storyline, soyeah. Not great.

Genny: I don't have a lot to say about Liz and the Blue Bird other than I like the revelation near the end that the Nozomi and Mizore actually represent the opposite character you would initially think they embody in the fairy tale and musical piece. This is an inoffensive slice of life high school drama featuring peaceful classical music that is apparently a spinoff adaptation of a series I haven't seen, but I gotta say it doesn't do a great job at inspiring me to watch the source material. The animation is beautiful as I'd expect from this studio, but the atmosphere is way too subdued and serene for my tastes.

Johnbobb: I really love the opening music. It's just extremely pleasant, and kind of reminds me of something like Twilight Town. I'm torn because I both think this was beautiful and also dreadfully boring. It would've made for a fantastic short film, but it really feels like its stretching beyond its capabilities to hit that 90 minute mark. The subtlety in the writing doesn't work as strongly when the theme (which is interesting, but not all that complex) is overtly clear throughout the whole film.

Charon: This one is... I would say without fear of what it makes me seem like, this one made me uncomfortable. Not for the obvious reason, but just because I don't believe a character as awkward and strange as the main character here could really exist in reality. Her behavior is so strange and the obsessive nature of her relationship with her friend is very unhealthy and the movie doesn't really seem to want to paint her as someone who actually is in an unhealthy place mentally. The twist that the characters are actually in the inverse roles as the movie has you to believe their in also didn't set that well with me. I didn't find it very believable with the behavior exhibited by either of the main characters, especially the protagonist. It was a little hard to get through, and a little hard to find much enjoyment from.

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Congrats to azuarc on being really good at predicting stuff