I first watched the series "The Vision of Escaflowne" and was impressed with the deep storyline and characters. Now understandably, it is difficult to take a 26 episode series and convert it into a 2 hour movie.The movie's storyline does not make much sense. Like the series, it is about a girl named Hitomi, who hates her life and wants to escape from everything. Her wish comes true and she is magically to the world of Gaea.In the series, an empire called Zaibach was trying to harness the power of Atlantis so everyone's dreams can come true. In the movie, Zaibach is replaced with the Black Dragon clan, and the Black Dragon Clan is trying to destroy the world so everyone's sorrow can be lifted. The Emperor of Zaibach, Dornkirk is absent from the movie, replacing him with Folken who was also in the series. Folken, my favorite character from the series, is turned from a man who believes he is doing the right thing but isn't, into a stereotypical villain who simply wants to destroy the world.Out of nowhere towards the beginning of third act of the movie, suddenly the dragon armor (Guymelefs in the series) Escaflowne has the power to destroy the world. Whether or not it destroys the world, rests in the wish of Hitomi, who is believed to be the legendary Wing Goddess.Everything is solved so quickly by the end. The end fight scene is unexciting and by that time, I just didn't care about the rest of the movie.Its hard to say whats exactly wrong with the movie. I guess its a combination of a weak story, weak characters, poor voice-overs, and bad pacing. The animation is cool in some of the fight scenes. Note I said "some" of the fight scenes.Watch the series, though it has its problems, its far better than this so called "re-telling."

For those who have seen the Escaflowne television series know that it was a beautifully complex shoujou anime with plenty of action, adventure, and romance.The movie, however, is a completely different animal. Most viewers try to compare the television series to the movie, and thus usually disregard the movie as trash, as it is not a faithful retelling of the series. So, if you haven't seen this movie yet, but have seen the series, remember they are two completely different creatures, each wonderful and unique.The most noticeable change is in the character design. Nobuteru Yuuki (who also did the designs for Chrono Cross, X, and Record of Lodess War) slightly altered the character's distinctive looks from the TV series. They now closely resemble the characters from Chrono Cross (the similarity between Millerna and Kid is the most obvious). The plot was also trimmed of the intricate subplots to fit into a decent running time, and thus some of the characters from the series do not appear. The biggest change is the inclusion of more action and violence, so we're talking flying body parts and lots of blood spraying. This was done to attract more males to the fanbase as the TV series had a fanbase that was 80% female.Other things, however, haven't changed. Yoko Kanno and her partner Hajime Mizoguchi return with an excellent score of blended nationalities to give it a truly unique sound that makes it seem as if we are really listening to the music from another world.Overall, the movie is an excellent example of anime at its best. Between the quality of the animation and overall production, this movie is a must see for anyone who loves any form of animation.

I'm a casual anime fan, someone who doesn't know the intricate plots and history of the genre as much as I supposedly should. I think that's a good thing.So often I watch anime that's been hailed as the best thing since sliced bread, and compared to other more mainstream (read: non-anime) features, IMO it doesn't even come close. I think fans of sub-genres tend to be blind to real critique of their favorite subjects, because they need to justify their excessive interest in it.That being said, you still need to compare like-genre films to one another - at least to some degree, and I think in this case Escaflowne does a great job standing up to its competitors.Someone had previously mentioned that the faces in this feature were rather badly drawn, and I tend to agree - it's odd, because the quality of the rest of the scenes/ scenery, is relatively good. The plot in this film, as in most anime is VERY disconnected, with whole chunks missing at parts. Rewinding certainly helps when watching this. However, as with most good anime, even if there is some plot missing, the end message is fairly clear. The score is amazing. It's rare you hear this kind of music in "regular" movies, much less an animated feature.In general, I would recommend watching this on DVD, as you will want to rewind at some points, and try to understand certain elements, and/or watch the fast scenes a few more times.

I haven't seen the entire series `The Visions of Escaflowne'. What I saw I really liked, but it needed something. It needed to be a much darker and more grim story. Well, this movie has a grim and dark story, with plenty of graphic violence to boot (now why did it get a PG-13?). Even though it kind of is a condensed version of the series, it does tell it's own story in a way. Though some `Escaflowne' fans may be disappointed by how much different the movie is, many people will be happy with the style. The story is basically the same as the series: A normal high-school girl named Hitomi is transported to the world of Gaea to help the survivors of countries that fell to the powerful Black Dragon empire in one final battle that will determine the fate of their world. It's actually a pretty good story with amazing animation and characters who are much less annoying in the movie than they were in the series. The music is also stunning with several great tracks. Every way I look at the movie I love it. It's even kind of a cute romance movie. If you have a friend who wants to see some anime, show him this. If you liked the movie then get the 3-disc DVD. Well worth watching, but do get the subtitled version. Dubbed: C, Subtitled: A.Rated R for graphic animated violence/gore, language, and sensuality. Suggested for ages 15 and up.