Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful production of the old Japanese childrens fable
Review: I had seen this several years ago when it was on tape and am very delighted to see that it is comming out on DVD. Giovanii and his friend suddenly find themselves on a train speeding through the galaxy, meeting people and seeing sites they only imagined. At certain cross roads they must decide what to do, where to go and what to see. After making a promise to always be together one of the two must decide whats best for their friendship.
Granted this is slow moving, but very deep. For example Lain, being slow but interesting. Alot of symbolisim is painted in this film with its whole some plot and its views of certain things such as heaven and death. Personally I think this is for a select audience, for those who like Dragon Ball Z or Tenchi Muyo may not enjoy this, but for those who enjoy stylist and deep features such as Please Save my Earth and Utena may infact enjoy this.
Rating:
Summary: Huge Anime fan from Canada!
Review: I loved this movie, although it was hard to sit through and it was symbelized through cats. This movie started out fine about a young cat and his friend. But as it got further in it got pointless and boring. About 1/2 way it started to make more sence and become sad. At the end in the last 5-10min the whole movie came togeather and became really sad. me being 13/M when i watched it, I cried at the end.
Rating: 
Summary: I have no idea what it is about
Review: I RARELY don't finish a movie after I've started watching it but this movie bored me to tears. I sat through 30min of this movie and absolutely nothing happened. Blue kitty cat goes to school, blue kitty cat goes to get milk, blue kitty cat gets on a train, blue and pink kitty cat go exploring. I couldn't take it any more. The images are beautiful and I'm sure this movie had some sort of deep message but it's just way too boring. I took the DVD out and put in Akira.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I saw this film at a friend's house three or four years ago, and it made a big impression on me -- I remember it vividly. This is a beautiful film!! It opens with a shot of a city which is unmistakably Florence, and I was immediately transported into a universe where it seemed like the Boboli Gardens and the Duomo could coexist with giant astral wire-frame pyramids bounding in the sky and archeological digs suspended weightlessly in space... very magical and beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful movie.
Review: In my opinion, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" is an outstanding piece of animation. Many reviewers will note, and accurately so, that this movie is both heavy and slow as melted gold. It's true: in our current world of sound bites and media clips, fast action and short attention, this movie stands alone. This is especially so when the movie is compared to other anime, a category under which fall some of the fastest and slickest movies in the world. If nothing else, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" gets points for sheer originality and ingenuity. Gisaburo Sugii (the director) has taken Kenji Miyazawa's children's story and created for it a living atmosphere. While highly detailed backgrounds are nothing new for anime, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" combines its finely crafted images with a brilliant use of frame shots, pacing, and audio montage to create a surreal and ethereal viewing experience. While often advertised as a children's movie, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" most certainly does not tell a very light story. With both religious and nihilistic imagery, Sugii presents us with a powerful treatise on death and life. However, even if you do not appreciate the story itself, the beauty in the dream-like artwork and animation cannot be denied. If this is the kind of movie that you'd just as soon sleep through, then you're missing out on some amazing cinema. Admittedly, most people these days would probably rather numb their brains in front of the "Tomb Raider" movie, than sit through the likes of "Don't Look Now" or "Blow Up." But, who knows.... If you want to be pulled into a beautifully crafted and mesmerizing world, then watch "Night on the Galactic Railroad."
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful movie.
Review: In my opinion, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" is an outstanding piece of animation. Many reviewers will note, and accurately so, that this movie is both heavy and slow as melted gold. It's true: in our current world of sound bites and media clips, fast action and short attention, this movie stands alone. This is especially so when the movie is compared to other anime, a category under which fall some of the fastest and slickest movies in the world. If nothing else, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" gets points for sheer originality and ingenuity. Gisaburo Sugii (the director) has taken Kenji Miyazawa's children's story and created for it a living atmosphere. While highly detailed backgrounds are nothing new for anime, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" combines its finely crafted images with a brilliant use of frame shots, pacing, and audio montage to create a surreal and ethereal viewing experience. While often advertised as a children's movie, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" most certainly does not tell a very light story. With both religious and nihilistic imagery, Sugii presents us with a powerful treatise on death and life. However, even if you do not appreciate the story itself, the beauty in the dream-like artwork and animation cannot be denied. If this is the kind of movie that you'd just as soon sleep through, then you're missing out on some amazing cinema. Admittedly, most people these days would probably rather numb their brains in front of the "Tomb Raider" movie, than sit through the likes of "Don't Look Now" or "Blow Up." But, who knows.... If you want to be pulled into a beautifully crafted and mesmerizing world, then watch "Night on the Galactic Railroad."
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful movie.
Review: In my opinion, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" is an outstanding piece of animation. Many reviewers will note, and accurately so, that this movie is both heavy and slow as melted gold. It's true: in our current world of sound bites and media clips, fast action and short attention, this movie stands alone. This is especially so when the movie is compared to other anime, a category under which fall some of the fastest and slickest movies in the world. If nothing else, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" gets points for sheer originality and ingenuity. Gisaburo Sugii (the director) has taken Kenji Miyazawa's children's story and created for it a living atmosphere. While highly detailed backgrounds are nothing new for anime, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" combines its finely crafted images with a brilliant use of frame shots, pacing, and audio montage to create a surreal and ethereal viewing experience. While often advertised as a children's movie, "Night on the Galactic Railroad" most certainly does not tell a very light story. With both religious and nihilistic imagery, Sugii presents us with a powerful treatise on death and life. However, even if you do not appreciate the story itself, the beauty in the dream-like artwork and animation cannot be denied. If this is the kind of movie that you'd just as soon sleep through, then you're missing out on some amazing cinema. Admittedly, most people these days would probably rather numb their brains in front of the "Tomb Raider" movie, than sit through the likes of "Don't Look Now" or "Blow Up." But, who knows.... If you want to be pulled into a beautifully crafted and mesmerizing world, then watch "Night on the Galactic Railroad."
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Slow Christian Death-Cult Flick
Review: Neat animation (for those that don't mind a tepid pace), but the moral backdrop is reprehensible: bad little boys who don't properly attend to their parents go to hell and burn forever, even if they are basically good at heart.
Rating: 
Summary: The Mystical Express
Review: Previous reviewer Ezra Shapiro dismissed this piece as "heavily theistic; it's designed to make you think, but only in one direction," and is troubled by the "glowing crosses on the horizon." However, it seems to me that he misses one or two key points. Perhaps most obvious is the repeated note that the train is travelling in the Dream Dimension -- a creation of Mind, filled with artifacts of the IMAGINATION. It is not the whole tale; something lies quite beyond this. While most of the train debarks at Miyazawa's depiction of "Christian Heaven," Giovanni and his friend Campanella remain on board, lonely passengers headed to what is referred to as "True Heaven." This is depicted as a black-hole-like "Sack of Coal," where Campanella suggests his "Mother" is waiting to be reunited to him. As he is not speaking of his "mortal mother," whom he has long since left behind, I suggest that this is the "Mystical Mother," known in the Western Mystery Tradition as "Binah," the principle of limitation beyond which is the formlessness of the Unmanifest. Attention to such details adds a significant dimension to the tale which Mr. Shapiro apparently did not see. It is definately not "one-directional theism" as he suggests. Miyazawa encourages us to compare Campanella's act of courage and kindness in saving his friend, with that of the young Tutor, who allowed his two innocent charges to drown that they might enter into his Christian version of Heaven. However, other characters in the film are ambivalent about the young Tutor's definition of "happiness." Finally, as others have pointed out, Giovanni fits more with the image of the descending Bodhisattva than with a traditional Christian theistic view. This movie is a visual feast, the story line exceedingly well-crafted, and its message is subtle and nuanced. First-rate!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful. Lugubrious. Creepy.
Review: Really nicely drawn and composed, I agree. Probably fairly true to Miyazawa's vision. Heavily theistic; it's designed to make you think, but only in one direction. While the images are sometimes cryptic, they are not subtle. Glowing crosses on the horizon. Drowned children who appear on the train dripping wet while their tutor discourses on redemption through service to god. Perhaps the notion that the train is carrying the dead to heaven was not trite when Miyazawa wrote the story, but it sure is trite now. And, oh, is it slow and gloomy! Claustrophobic too. The characters say "uh" frequently and seem too closely miked. Be warned, this one is not for the kiddies. No jolly Totoro here.
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