Sky Blue is another formulaic futuristic sci-fi animated feature with an apocalyptic vision of mankind's fate in much the same mould as Square's cinematic bomb Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within. Like that worthless movie, Sky Blue serves up an ambitious central plot set in the distant future (2142?) after a global disaster, in this case a man-made disaster, and then proceeds to clumsily fumble with some important themes such as friendship, love, dreams and the environment through a poorly written story with a weak cast instead of developing the environmental message into a cohesive and engaging yarn like one would expect. Earth is in peril due to humans causing an ecological catastrophe that has blacked out the sky. The set up is familiar, borrowing the same formula as FF:SW. We have the last remnants of our species gathered in a giant, covered city with the entire planet now one big wasteland, a troubled 'hero' who drifts into strange dream sequences and battles against time to save mankind (in this case by destroying the city to let the sun shine through the clouds!?!) and a squad of 'lovable'(annoying and stupid more like) warriors fighting for the cause. There is even the crude tacked on 'romance' that is both completely unnecessary in such a film and undeveloped, but it seems filmmakers these days feel obliged to have a tacked on love story at the core of every non romantic film so I can almost forgive the scrip writers for this crime. Unfotunately there are no weird aliens in this film and the characters are amongst the weakest ever created - the hero, the girl (who's only discernible trait is having red hair) and the (oh so sci-fi animation cliché) villain are all devoid of personality and the script they deliver is weak, cold, corny and unrealistic - every line seems to be an explanation of the plot (which is so thin it requires little explanation) instead of any meaningful insight into what is going on between the characters. Another film from the orient that attempts Hollywood style story telling (for some reason) and fails miserably.
Sky Blue was a very poor film indeed, however it will look great on a HD Widescreen display, if only for the backgrounds. A lot of time and money was invested in this project however there are some very noticeable problems with the animation (the only thing notable in the production). Shadowing is poorly done creating disappointing effects on bikes and the flying bike things, most moving objects don't look properly integrated with backgrounds. The 2D characters are the worst aspect of the film's animation as they all look too similar (and all appear pretty healthy, clean and well nourished considering there has been no sunlight for 100 years and there is no explanation about food supplies etc) and are horribly animated in contrast to everything around them, they look terrible against the lush 3D backgrounds because they just don't look like they fit in at all. In the English version the voice acting is the worst I have ever encountered in an animated feature, matching their animated characters the voice actors are wooden and emotionless adding to the general atmosphere of boredom. All in all Sky Blue is just a poor man's 'Spirits Within' without the A list voice talent. Sky Blue is at best mediocre as a visual spectacle, some backgrounds are eye popping, but overall it is nothing special and the plot is short, underdeveloped and predictable. Ghost in the Shell and Advent Children are superior in visuals and story. 4/10 - boring and uninspired, avoid.
Sky Blue was a very poor film indeed, however it will look great on a HD Widescreen display, if only for the backgrounds. A lot of time and money was invested in this project however there are some very noticeable problems with the animation (the only thing notable in the production). Shadowing is poorly done creating disappointing effects on bikes and the flying bike things, most moving objects don't look properly integrated with backgrounds. The 2D characters are the worst aspect of the film's animation as they all look too similar (and all appear pretty healthy, clean and well nourished considering there has been no sunlight for 100 years and there is no explanation about food supplies etc) and are horribly animated in contrast to everything around them, they look terrible against the lush 3D backgrounds because they just don't look like they fit in at all. In the English version the voice acting is the worst I have ever encountered in an animated feature, matching their animated characters the voice actors are wooden and emotionless adding to the general atmosphere of boredom. All in all Sky Blue is just a poor man's 'Spirits Within' without the A list voice talent. Sky Blue is at best mediocre as a visual spectacle, some backgrounds are eye popping, but overall it is nothing special and the plot is short, underdeveloped and predictable. Ghost in the Shell and Advent Children are superior in visuals and story. 4/10 - boring and uninspired, avoid.