As the title indicates, I have a love/hate connection to this one. On one hand, the story is a jumbled mess with some good ideas that just don't seem to work well together. Also, some scenes really drag on for too long, though I heard this was because Richard Williams was trying to make up for his "stolen" project, The Thief and the Cobbler. Finally, Ann and Andy themselves aren't that interesting and barely undergo any development throughout the film.
On the other hand, the animations are spectacular for a 70's animated feature, especially when you take into account that most 70's works had small budgets for this sort of thing. Secondly, I don't care what anyone says, I think the soundtrack is amazing, bringing a great Broadway feel to the film. There is admittedly too much singing in the film, but the songs themselves make up for it. The only actor who can't sing well is the guy played Leonard, and I'm pretty sure that was done intentionally since the character is meant to be crazy. Also, as mentioned, I thought a lot of the ideas were good. Babette, while kind of annoying, was at least relate-able as she just wasn't used to a life outside of her home country. The Greedy is another relate-able character despite his pointlessness as his loneliness led him to gluttony. A lot criticize the camel for his hallucinations, but he's also an interesting character as his subplot was more interesting than the main one. I also liked little moments such as Babette taking over a pirate ship mostly because that sort of thing was rare back in the day.
This is far from a great film, but it's certainly imaginative and has some major highlights to it. Would I recommend it? Not completely, but I think it's worth checking out at least once.
On the other hand, the animations are spectacular for a 70's animated feature, especially when you take into account that most 70's works had small budgets for this sort of thing. Secondly, I don't care what anyone says, I think the soundtrack is amazing, bringing a great Broadway feel to the film. There is admittedly too much singing in the film, but the songs themselves make up for it. The only actor who can't sing well is the guy played Leonard, and I'm pretty sure that was done intentionally since the character is meant to be crazy. Also, as mentioned, I thought a lot of the ideas were good. Babette, while kind of annoying, was at least relate-able as she just wasn't used to a life outside of her home country. The Greedy is another relate-able character despite his pointlessness as his loneliness led him to gluttony. A lot criticize the camel for his hallucinations, but he's also an interesting character as his subplot was more interesting than the main one. I also liked little moments such as Babette taking over a pirate ship mostly because that sort of thing was rare back in the day.
This is far from a great film, but it's certainly imaginative and has some major highlights to it. Would I recommend it? Not completely, but I think it's worth checking out at least once.