Rating: 
Summary: A great anime
Review: This isn't that bad but uplifting, a great anime and inspired story from classic movie "Cider House Rules".
Rating:
Summary: i'm at a loss for words...
Review: this movie was everything i wanted it to be and more. it made me laugh but at the same time weep. that is the beauty of this movie, it touches people on so many levels. i first heard about this movie from a magazine. Upon seeing the movie stills i was instantly drawn to it. i knew that i had to see it. i thank god that i was able to see Tokyo Godfathers at such a pivotal moment in my life.
Rating:
Summary: Christmas--one damn miracle after another!
Review: This second feature by Satoshi Kon, like "Ice Age", spins off of John Ford's 1948 western "Three Godfathers" as a Christmas allegory of three grown men trying to deal with an orphaned baby. This time, we have a runaway teenaged girl, an alcoholic ex-athlete and a middle-aged drag queen who form a kind of family in the underworld of Tokyo's homeless. The discovery of a baby in a trash dump takes them all over town for the week between Christmas and New Years (thus starting on a Christmas holy day and ending on a Shinto/Buddhist holiday), with the coincidences and miracles becoming more and more improbable yet ultimately satisfying.This hasn't been dubbed into English, which is just as well, because the original voices are perfect, from the hysterics of the runaway to the completely unfeminine voice of the drag queen (if it HAS to be dubbed in future, better that Harvey Fierstein takes the role of Hana). And while this movie and the anime series "Witch Hunter Robin" give intriguing glimpses into post-Bubble homelessness in Japan, and a feature on the subject would have been a welcome extra, I can see why the DVD producers didn't dwell on it. Still, a great movie from a great director.
Rating:
Summary: Christmas--one damn miracle after another!
Review: This second feature by Satoshi Kon, like "Ice Age", spins off of John Ford's 1948 western "Three Godfathers" as a Christmas allegory of three grown men trying to deal with an orphaned baby. This time, we have a runaway teenaged girl, an alcoholic ex-athlete and a middle-aged drag queen who form a kind of family in the underworld of Tokyo's homeless. The discovery of a baby in a trash dump takes them all over town for the week between Christmas and New Years (thus starting on a Christmas holy day and ending on a Shinto/Buddhist holiday), with the coincidences and miracles becoming more and more improbable yet ultimately satisfying. This hasn't been dubbed into English, which is just as well, because the original voices are perfect, from the hysterics of the runaway to the completely unfeminine voice of the drag queen (if it HAS to be dubbed in future, better that Harvey Fierstein takes the role of Hana). And while this movie and the anime series "Witch Hunter Robin" give intriguing glimpses into post-Bubble homelessness in Japan, and a feature on the subject would have been a welcome extra, I can see why the DVD producers didn't dwell on it. Still, a great movie from a great director.
Rating: 
Summary: An animated journey about family, love and friendship
Review: Three homeless people are celebrating Christmas Eve together. Gin is a former bicycle racer who left his family after amounting incredible gambling debts; Hana is a drag queen who left the safety of her surrogate family after a violent incident at a bar; Miyuki is a young girl who ran away from home after a fight with her father. While rummaging through a garbage heap, they hear a baby crying and find an infant girl hidden among the trash. Determined not to let the child have unhappy memories of Christmas, Hana convinces the others that they need to find the child's family. Along their journey, each is forced to confront his or her own past and what forced them to turn away from their families. Filled with beautifully animated scenery, great stories about friendship and family, and just a hint of the magical, director Satoshi Kon has crafted a marvelous anime film that goes beyond the futuristic action that I've usually associated with anime. The characters are very human, very believable. It shows you just what animation can do as a storytelling medium.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming anime of 2003
Review: Tokyo Godfathers is a great movie for those who know anime and for those who don't. The plot is very simple, but the character development is very creative. The movie begins with an attempt to fool us into thinking that the only common bond between the three is being homeless. But as the movie progresses, the viewer learns why they are together and what they all miss. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see an uplifting adventure in a non-traditional Christmas tale.
Rating:
Summary: Redemption Where You Can Find It
Review: Tokyo Godfathers is certainly not your run of the mill Anime. The plotline however is straightforward - Tokyo Godfathers is touching story of three homeless people: Gin (a down on his luck wino), Hana (a past his/her prime homosexual drag queen) and Miyuki (a runaway adolescent) - who come across a cast off baby and seek out the child's parents from clues they uncover. In the process of finding the parents, they inevitably turn around full circle and find themselves... and we in turn, ourselves. Appropriate for any Christmastime - it is set in a snow-covered metropolitan Tokyo. The movie is full of coincidence and has a feel of modern-day inner-city fairy tale. The movie is described as a comedy but the serious underpinning of urban angst pervades the scene. Subsequent to finding the toddler in the midst of a heap of rubbish, our three anti-heroes go about their business - while battling their demons - in a classical gumshoe fashion. Despite the many diversions into sub-stories such as gangland rescues and such, it is clear from the outset that the key to understanding the characters is the road home. As can be predicted with most fairy tales - even urban ones - there is a miracle or two. Moreover, as with redemption type stories there will be the inevitable reconciliation of parent to child - and Tokyo Godfathers is no exception. Part of Tokyo Godfather's charm is its ability to make social commentary amidst the comedy of errors - themes such as economic disparity and Foucauldian alienation or othering is all over the movie. Nevertheless, the key to investing in the movie is the complexity that Anime brings with it - a sense of transformation. That the characters where one way when we began and are very different now - just as we were one way when the movie began and effect a metamorphosis in the end. We share the experience of Gin, Hana, and Miyuki because it is cathartic and we can explore this in this imagined space... others are not so fortunate.
Miguel Llora
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