When you see the film's title, you can get a close idea about the plot of the film; once you have watched the first fifteen minutes of it, you will no longer doubt that you are facing a love story between a commoner and a princess. I have never read the light novel, so, as I ignore how the print version is, I'm just going to judge the film as a work alone.The film causes enough warm feelings and develops its story to keep its audience interested during the hour and half the movie longs. However, beyond showing a romantic cliché with elements of typical Japanese animation (traumatized characters, those who cannot express what they feel, and people who gives exaggerated hate treatments against someone, etc.) the film do not offer anything else.On the technical aspects, the film is visually beautiful. Colorful drawings, landscapes where blue and white prevail that transmit the spirit of marine-celestial calm which is the protagonist life desire. There is use of animation Cel-Shading, which never leaves me a good impression, but, as a relief, it is limited to the airships. The music never represents a memorable accompaniment, it is appropriate to situations, however, you will forget it after have finished the film. The theme song of the film don't shines against any other presented in many animated films for young audience: calm, simple, repetitive and with some degree of "catchiness" tune.Now I would like to talk about a link between the narrative and the technical side: the resolving of action scenes. This is one of the weakest points in the film. Those moments in which the Santa Cruz is surrounded by enemies, a huge army firing thousands of projectiles, and the pilot always can fly away, managing in the process to destroy one or two enemy ships, are nonsensical. These scenes are really disappointing and quickly ruin any credibility that the film have harvested. I could not help thinking on those American films of the eighties where an army from a Third World country is incapable of firing a single shot at a single man running among indiscriminate fire. I'm not exaggerating. The talented but still young Charles Karino evades tens of thousands of projectiles, including those tracker ones, with his exceptional but supposed not indestructible airplane. Certainly, only a companion like Juana del Moral could honor the young pilot, who was able to beat the ace pilot of the enemy army during the first time that in her whole life she had ever fired a gun.There are actually very few roses I can give to this film. Since the beginning, when it's given a mission of national importance to a young mestizo in a country where clearly xenophobia and racism are deeply rooted. It is never suggested that the boy is experienced enough to do such a quest: he has never done the route that he was asked to do and, worst of all, it is pretty obvious that his country distrusts him. The future empress of the state is left in the hands of a mercenary who is constantly insulted (in a way close to absurdity), almost trying to incite him to an uprising before a feeling of patriotism.The rest of it is more cliché: childhood friendship, lonely protagonist, cruel fate, travel in which the characters open their hearts… The ending is unsatisfactory to the western ideals, as the most of Japanese entertainment love stories; that does not make the end of a film a bad end. You can't complain about the film when it lacks texture, is predictable in most cases, has a unlikely plot. If anyone wants to watch this film, it's going to be OK. If you don't have anything else to do and just want to relax in your sofa, this is your film. A simple, flat, sweet feature film.

Wow. I just finished up this film as we speak. What a breath of fresh air. All the comparisons to Studio Ghibli and Hiyao Miyazaki are spot-on. I don't know anything about the people who created The Princess and the Pilot, but bravo! On the surface this is the story of a pilot assigned with escorting a princess across a vast and hostile ocean. You will not find thousands of different set pieces, there are no shocking or traumatic plot schemes. But what this film does it does oh-so-beautifully. The set serves the major plot perfectly (oh and the sets are gorgeous. It's about the responsibilities and trappings of adulthood and nobility, of perhaps youthful and perhaps sincere yearning. It's also a very entertaining adventure ride. Watching this movie is like taking a rafting trip down a river in spring. It's also a subdued romance. That is the backbone of this beautiful tale. It's one of survival, destiny and free will, of responsibility, pragmatism and dare I say love. The animation is smooth and appealing and very reminiscent of Studio Ghibli. The gunships and environments are amazingly well-done. Admittedly I am a sucker for any films shot mostly in nature, so I may be biased in that regard because literally 75% of the movie is wonderful cloud, ocean and sky shots. You'll see waterfalls, animals, tropical islands, all kinds of cool stuff and all incredibly detailed in just the right ways. The attention to detail is magnificent. The script is intelligent, absorbing and thought provoking. You will feel for and take a liking to both of the main characters. At first I was upset there was no English dub because I actually am not the biggest fan of subtitles, but I love this movie so much the subtitles don't bother me a bit! And the script is just so good that after a few minutes I didn't even notice it anymore. You might watch this and find it uneventful, or feel like there was not a high enough peak for your tastes, you very well might be disappointed with the ending. But to me this movie is perfection. Every moment is in a way a celebration of adulthood - of self-control and awareness and that child-like dreaming that we never lose. To me the ending is perfect as well. The only point I would knock off are for the first 20 minutes of getting the plot setup, I wish the first 20 minutes was done slightly differently but its just a minor nitpick from an armchair quarterback.Stellar piece of work.

OK it's not a movie you will watch with guy friends, it's very soothing without the ace pilot kick ass package.it's a 2 hour escape into a childhood dream, there's the princess, and the sky for you.if you grab a pina colada or ice tea open the window with cool breeze in the afternoon you'll be in the mood for this little gem i'm totally into top gun etc but this movie while being the exact opposite, do bring me back in time where dreams are beautiful and nothing else matters, you'll enjoy the graphics and a little bit of pure innocent romanceif you must be a tough guy 100% of the time don't watch it, if you do have a soft romantic side and appreciate a little escape this is for you

This film is about a long journey that a pilot and a princess take during a fictional war, in some fictional aircraft.Being a screenplay by Satoko Okudera of "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" and "Summer Wars" fame, I expected this one to be an equal success. Sadly it is not the case here.From a normal movie viewer's standpoint, To Aru Hikushi e no Tsuioku is unsubstantial and clichéd at best. The plot is quite flat without any twist: you can pretty much imagine what is going to happen in such a story setting after the first 15 minutes of viewing, and the movie will go on to prove your forecast. The characters could've used much more development than what is shown on screen: the princess's behavior and actions feels awkward and forced. A lot of time is wasted on unnecessary dialogues and unimportant incidents and characters while not enough is given to the main characters and their journey, to the point that it feels draggy from time to time while unsatisfactory in the end.The music and theme song is forgettable, especially compared with classics like the Macross series. Image wise, while it serves some good background scenery of the sky, the clouds and the sea, and some of the air battle scenes are amazing, I couldn't help but feel that occasionally they cheapped out on 3D FX: a lot of the objects and scenes are purely hand drawn with dubious perspective and accuracy, resulting in a half-finished feeling. To be honest the whole movie feels more like an episode of a TV series than a feature film.And then another big issue for me is the aircraft design and tactics they employ in the battle scenes. Being an aviation/war themed film I expect something of "Porco Rosso" or "Macross Zero" level of research and depiction of the aircraft and air combat, only to be deeply disappointed in this regard. Things are against basic physic principles when it comes to aircraft design (those floats are just way too small on the "Santa Cruz") and air maneuvers (they act like UFOs instead of real airframes), and the use of the planes are unimaginative to say the least(I have some good ideas for those retractable floats). I'm not going into detail as to spoil it, but you will know what I'm talking about if you are also an aviation geek like me. They could've hired some real consultants if they don't possess Hayao Miyazaki's level of knowledge of aviation.I kept feeling that a lot could've been done in this film but none is achieved in reality. This movie is about love and aviation, both of them extremely romantic topics, but it delivers neither. What a waste.I give it 5 stars for their effort and some of the beautiful and exciting scenes.