WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Doobidoob So I saw this film during the summer (not my decision, by the way)and I have to say, there is so much wrong with this film. I am completely and utterly incredulous of the people who said it was amazing.First of all, the animation is poor. Very poor. The characters are so stiff most of the time and there is no attention to detail. I feel like I'm watching corpses being dragged around. I think there was only one character that seemed alive at all and he was just some throw-away comedy relief character. Also, the timing is either way too slow or way too fast. The 3D modelling is boring as hell. Everything just looks so plastic and yucky. The lighting is boring - it's like they just used a single light in the scene and went "finished!".It also seems like the filmmaker's didn't know how to make storyboards or learn anything about composition because the mise en scene sucks. There are scenes where characters are standing perfectly still in profile view for several minutes at a time for no other reason than that they were too lazy to render out scenes from a different angle. I couldn't even see their facial expressions properly. Everything is framed so lazily and it feels like somebody just threw it together in the last minute. The music was nothing particularly exceptional. It felt really cheap, like some composer decided "Nevermind - I'll just download some stuff from incompetech" (Actually, I take that back because Incompetech does have some legitimately decent stuff). The voice acting was not the worst I've heard, but it was pretty bland (oh boy, is this movie bland). Oh, the subtitles - they only translated the parts in french. I don't know if it was intentional to leave out the bits in arabic, but there seemed to be entire scenes in that language. It left the audience pretty confused (except for the ones who knew arabic, of course).I don't even remember too much of the story to be honest. It was so boring and meandering that I just couldn't care. The characters were unengaging and the dialogue didn't help. Maybe if there were a more talented, more competent group of people to adapt this story, maybe it would work. However we got this and this sucks big time. I'm unashamed of my bias against this film. You need only watch the trailer and just see for yourself the nastiness of the quality.You know what saddens me even more? The budget for this film was roughly 2.5 million euros higher than 'The Secret of Kells' which is just so mindblowingly beautiful, especially compared to this garbage. I'm giving it 3 out of ten to be generous.

Ruby Liang (ruby_fff) I recall the trailer of "Azur and Asmar: The Princes' Quest" was impressive, hence I made it a point to catch it when it's briefly showing at the local indie theaters. It was 99 minutes well-spent and more when writer-director Michel Ocelot appeared at the closing credits. We learned that he created the animation in Photoshop, it was a 6-year effort to have the feature length completed, distributed and first released in France in 2006. The drawings are beautifully detailed and in brilliant colors, depicting a thoughtful dramatic story that exudes fairytale adventure qualities and encompasses cultural diversity themes.Azur is fair-skinned and blue-eyed, and Asmar is dark-skinned and dark-eyed. Both are brought up by Asmar's mother who is also nurse-mother to Azur. When they grew up, together they became fascinated with the legend (as told by mother Jénane, voice of Hiam Abbass who's the mother in "The Visitor" 2007) and pursuit of the rescue to the Djinn Fairy. In their adventures, they met and gained the allied assistance of the agile, energetic little Princess Chamsous Sabah, and accompanied by the goggle-eyed opportunist Crapoux. The adventure segment reminds me of Tarsem Singh's "The Fall" (2006), its visually exotic elements and magical characters. The challenges they encounter and have to resolve one by one are reminiscent of the excitement and anticipation in "The Lord of the Rings" series. The conclusion is nothing short of the grandeur and sparkles of Disney-fare court finale as in "Beauty and the Beasts" or "Sleeping Beauty." Yes, definite an animation to enjoy (on the DVD, there is English version which is free from distraction of subtitle-reading.) Also available on DVD, do check out the other marvelously original and worthwhile writing & direction of Michel Ocelot's animation feature: "Kirikou and the Sorceress" (1998) - simply entertaining story & adventure with (tiny) little Kirikou, including intelligently instilled cultural diversity points of view, subtle or not. Aptly paced music again enhanced Ocelot's skillful storytelling, both enjoyable for children and adults as well.

george karpouzas This animation fairy-tale is parable on tolerance between races, creeds and classes. It is a useful antidote to mundane everyday life in which those distinctions are very much alive. The message of the movie is delivered in a rather crude way and not through indirect suggestion.It is visually beautiful but the copy I saw in Greece did not have subtitles for the lines that were delivered in Arab dialect- I do not know whether this was a deliberate policy or it just happened in the copy I saw. Nevertheless it is a fine movie with a message for male friendship and co-operation between different people even when they are different in colour, creed and class. I recommend it for younger audiences primarily but also for older people although I don't think that a movie will make them change their mind on such issues. The arabic setting is picturesque and the movie is difficult to situate chronologically since the white boy receives the training of a medieval to post-medieval gentleman while the ship he uses is more of the age of great discoveries. The clothes of the Arabs I can not locate in history since my knowledge of costumes in Arab lands is inadequate.But the point is not historical veracity but the message of tolerance which is a child of European Enlightment one would say although this is a very qualified statement regarding the situation of the natives in European colonies. But the Ottoman Empire a supposed multicultural state practiced discrimination towards Jews and Christians, the infidels or jimmies but not on the scale of Catholic Spain for example. I would say that the movie expresses a wish and not a concrete historical reality during which the most that different people could hope for was mutual indifference. But it is a noble a commendable dream, better than other dreams that attempted to materialize as historical realities-as the Nazi dream of the thousand year era of Aryan supremacy.A well-intentioned movie.

Kadavris Maybe I've been lately overwhelmed by the Miyazaki's and Oshii's works. To not to mention a couple of other good-to-great names, for a 3 year period approximately. but it seems to me that there was already set some good rank for animation and background quality as in 2d and in 3D. So, the animation of a few main characters is awful. Jerky and Frankenstein-like stomping-the-ground movements are everywhere. mimics is lazy and not too complicated in terms of broad range of emotional expressions and variativity between some of the characters. The lone good one was a princess. It is live and energetic, leaving the very warm feeling and smiles on audience faces.Strange enough to see a mixture of well detailed faces with single color shaded clothes. As it seems to me it is more to make it simple to produce than some kind of artistical expression. That's because 3D models were overlaid on 2D backgrounds that was far too simple. Not much details, nearly no depth and interesting lighting which is always been the salt of moving pictures. not much movement on the background. That lack of the attention spots at deep layers produces somewhat dull picture that sure attracts the eye to the only moving and not so flat figures.The script can be characterized as full of mumbling and sticky places. Fairly standard princess and knight story. Remember the core of the "shrek" plot? I understand that is a tale of being a Human and a friend, to be simple. Although the beginning of the movie is filled with strong tension. The visions of heroic deeds that should be accomplished. But at the some key moments it makes a glimpse of treat and a second later it is gone far beyond. For me it's a bit frustrating to see the long and long chewed horrors to disappear magically and quickly. Before and then comes a few long scenes that picture a cornerstone events with far too simple words and explanations.I think now, that movie can entertain and be a good lesson of friendship to a little child, but not enough for a mature human being ;)