Kaena: the Prophesy : my review

*Tetsu Deinonychus* · 07-13-2005, 01:07 AM

Just caught Kaena on the action channel, and I gotta tell you all, I LIKED it!

For those who don't know, "Kaena: the Prophesy" is an Anime-influenced CGI sci-fi movie, released directly on DVD. It's about a young girl named Kaena who lives (with her tribe) in a giant magic tree. Everyone's obsessed with serving their tribal gods and is afraid to leave their tree, but Kaena discovers that those gods are not what they seem and her search for the truth takes her to some very weird places (with some very cool aliens).

I found it very enjoyable, but it's doomed to never be popular. It won't be accepted by the anime crowd because it's not from Japan, and it won't be accepted by the mainsteam CGI crowd because it doesn't star Robin Williams and Will Smith as wacky talking eggs who live in a big fridge full of celebrity-voiced food. I actually recommend it to fans of weird fantasy films, but they usually prefer live-action to animation. It's a niche-film without a niche! It's a shame, because I hope if we encourage films like this, we could steer CGI away from this whole "Big hollywood actors as talking junk/animals" rut it's so stuck in. IMO, if you just put aside any biases and watch this movie, it's worth it!

Animation-wise, it's a mixed bag. Some things (earthly backgrounds) look like 32/64 bit game graphics, while other things (monsters, weirder backgrounds) look SPECTACULAR. Kaena herself is well animated (and looks rather sexy, except for excessive forhead), but the other humans look too goofy IMO, but it's no big deal.

Acting-wise, it's good, all around. There are some celebrity voices (Kirsten Dunst, Greg Proops), but they actually play parts instead of themselves so it works out. Besides, Kirsten Dunst is adorable. There are also alot of real voice actors in the roles too.

The story is nice and weird, just the way I like it! The only problem here is it's a little rushed. If they'd made the film longer and slowed the pace down a bit, it would have been better.

So, in conclusion, It's a long wait for "FF: Advent Children" and the upcoming CGI TMNT movie, so if you've already seen "FF: Spirits Within" and want to see another of the few CGI movies that doesn't feature famous comedians as talking toilets or whatever, you can do ALOT worse than "Kaena: the Prophesy", just ask me.

Bye-cha!

07-13-2005, 01:07 AM	#1
Tetsu Deinonychus The Iron Dinosaur Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Studio Snowlion HQ Posts: 3,021	Kaena: the Prophesy : my review Just caught Kaena on the action channel, and I gotta tell you all, I LIKED it! For those who don't know, "Kaena: the Prophesy" is an Anime-influenced CGI sci-fi movie, released directly on DVD. It's about a young girl named Kaena who lives (with her tribe) in a giant magic tree. Everyone's obsessed with serving their tribal gods and is afraid to leave their tree, but Kaena discovers that those gods are not what they seem and her search for the truth takes her to some very weird places (with some very cool aliens). I found it very enjoyable, but it's doomed to never be popular. It won't be accepted by the anime crowd because it's not from Japan, and it won't be accepted by the mainsteam CGI crowd because it doesn't star Robin Williams and Will Smith as wacky talking eggs who live in a big fridge full of celebrity-voiced food. I actually recommend it to fans of weird fantasy films, but they usually prefer live-action to animation. It's a niche-film without a niche! It's a shame, because I hope if we encourage films like this, we could steer CGI away from this whole "Big hollywood actors as talking junk/animals" rut it's so stuck in. IMO, if you just put aside any biases and watch this movie, it's worth it! Animation-wise, it's a mixed bag. Some things (earthly backgrounds) look like 32/64 bit game graphics, while other things (monsters, weirder backgrounds) look SPECTACULAR. Kaena herself is well animated (and looks rather sexy, except for excessive forhead), but the other humans look too goofy IMO, but it's no big deal. Acting-wise, it's good, all around. There are some celebrity voices (Kirsten Dunst, Greg Proops), but they actually play parts instead of themselves so it works out. Besides, Kirsten Dunst is adorable. There are also alot of real voice actors in the roles too. The story is nice and weird, just the way I like it! The only problem here is it's a little rushed. If they'd made the film longer and slowed the pace down a bit, it would have been better. So, in conclusion, It's a long wait for "FF: Advent Children" and the upcoming CGI TMNT movie, so if you've already seen "FF: Spirits Within" and want to see another of the few CGI movies that doesn't feature famous comedians as talking toilets or whatever, you can do ALOT worse than "Kaena: the Prophesy", just ask me. Bye-cha! __________________ (Image hosting by Postimage.org) And here's a list of all my old wacky threads! Last edited by Tetsu Deinonychus; 07-13-2005 at 01:19 AM.