I even liked the animals who visited Gauche and made him play songs for them. It's very good to see an anime like this with such great art and that is very uplifting. Bravo to all involved!

Isao Takahata is one of the greatest directors of all time, either in animation of live action, and here we are shown one of his early pre- Ghibli films. The quality of the artwork and animation is sub-par compared to his later films (such as Grave of the Fireflies, which he made only six years after this film but it feels like it was made with ten times the budget and more advanced technology). The soundtrack is marvelous as it consists of Beethoven's 6th symphony and there is a very interesting cello solo later in the film.Overall, I found this film better than Pom Poko and Yamadas but not as good as Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday, which I consider his two masterpieces.

My grandson and I enjoyed this film together. We have developed a taste for such from Totoro and Castle in the Sky. In a quiet way you come to see the development of Goshu, enjoying the artwork, music and animal characters along the way. What a nice change of pace from the current stuff on Cartoon Network!

I just watched this film the other night with a bunch of other college aged students. We all had a blast. This is a great film for kids to watch as it contains only a tiny bit of mild animated violence, no profanity, and plenty of laughs.