I refused to watch this movie when it first came out, because I HATE the art. It’s ugly, and the people definitely sit within that “uncanny valley” for me. I ended up watching it because it was here and I wasn’t feeling so great.

There are problems with this movie, but because I ended up liking the story SO much, and the art (other than people) ended up being really beautiful and interesting, I could forgive them all. EXCEPT: I canNOT forgive the use of Eddie Deezen as Know-It-All. All of the other children had voices that sounded like children. Why, oh why, does the know-it-all have to destroy any credibility the movie had? I was a know-it-all, I still had a child’s voice when I was small. I didn’t sound like a nasally adult. Not only that, but his voice is recognizable as a cartoon nerdy kid. I felt that this movie was trying to be better than a cartoon, and this kid kept bringing me back to the cheesiness of a bad cartoon.

Anyway, I ended up really enjoying this film and feeling very sorry for poor Billy. I could see it becoming a REAL classic, rather than just the “classic” we keep being sold it is.