Review of 'Chieri & Cherry'

chieri_and_cherry.jpg “Chieri and Cherry” tells the story of a young girl “Chieri” with an active imagination. When she travels with her mother to pay their respects at her father's grave Chieri instead goes on an adventure with her stuffed animal friend “Cherry” (who becomes a large walking rabbit-like creature). On this adventure Chieri is joined by a talking cat and mouse. All three are forced face to face with a struggle of life and death that helps “Chieri” come to terms with her loss.

At touching and visually arresting animation that tackles the difficult subject of a young girl escaping into a world of make believe. Stop motion is quite unusual in Japanese cinema so this film, which was partially funded through crowdsourcing, is quite unique. The story is simple but the film is a joy to behold with amazing action sequences and imaginative twists (though perhaps not as “out there” as a lot of Japanese anime). A kind and gentle short story that does not pull any emotional punches.

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2018-08-18


Directed by: Makoto Nakamura

Studio: Frontier Works

Year: 2015

Length: 54 minutes

Genre: Animation

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5802858/