The protagonist is muddy. Is it the boy or is it Arteyu?
The antagonist is even harder. "The Nothing" is a hard concept to get your head around, then there is the wolf. Is he part of the nothing or what?
As a child I never could follow what was happening.
I think "the nothing" should have been personified by a baddie. Easier to follow.
Can't say I ever had a problem following the plot as a kid. I just thought it was rather dark and depressing at times.
shareI saw this when I was like 6 and understood it.
shareI understood it as a kid
shareSaw it last night for the first time in more than 2 decades. It is hard to follow compared to how simple modern kids movies are.
shareFirst you complain about the wolf, then you say the 'nothing' should've had a personified baddie. Hello? Contradicting much?
In any case, the story couldn't have been simpler. Atreyu tries to save Fantasia, then stuff happens, making it clear he couldn't do it, goes to Empress to talk about his failure, then Empress says all of it was necessary to complete the quest, because the REAL quest was simply bringing the reader (and watcher of the movie, YOU) with him so then he could give the Empress a new name.
Basically, 'bring a kid to empress - quest completed, level up, 200 gold!'
How could the story/plot (still not sure about the difference) have been simpler?
In fact, it was SO simple, I was disappointed when I saw the movie the first time, as in 'that's it?'. I wanted something more complicated an intricate.
'Nothing' is deliberately an 'impossible concept' so it remains in the world of 'unclear' or 'unexplainable', so the viewer - get this - has to use their IMAGINATION of what it might be like! No one can fully and in intricate detail explain, draw, visualize or imagine a concept like that. It's like trying to draw 'happiness' - you can only draw forms, symbols, maybe something abstract, but not something that everyone would instantly recognize as 'happiness' and nothing else.
Kids have active imaginations (kinda point of the movie), then it dulls down when they grow to be adults (sad). This means, evoking and provoking and prodding their imaginations by presenting a 'vague concept that can't be fully envisioned' is actually brilliant, and very easy for a kid to wonder about.
Not everything has to be easily digestible, it's good to leave some mystery and things that you can't just easily define and illustrate on any old piece of paper or film, this makes things more interesting and dare I say it - magical!
What kind of dull, unintelligent kid must you have been to watch this and not only not understand it, but complain about the 'nothing' concept.. ?