This Japanese anime from Studio Ghibli is one that was getting a lot of praise and high ratings from critics, Mark Kermode saying it is "compassionate", "magnificent", and "a beautiful work of art", so I was really hoping for something special. Basically a nameless man has been set adrift by a furious storm and struggles to swim in the furious ocean waves. He wakes up alone shipwrecked on a small and deserted tropical island, rich in resources, including fresh water and fruit, a variety of small animals and a dense forest of bamboo trees. The man builds a raft from bamboo, and attempts to sail away from the island, but an unseen creature beneath him crashes into and destroys the raft, forcing him to swim back ashore. He attempts to escape again on another raft, but his plan is again foiled by the sea creature. He tries a third time to escape the island, his raft is again destroyed, but in the water, he finds the creature facing him, it is a red turtle, it does not harm him, and he swims back ashore. That evening, the man sees the red turtle crawling on the beach, attempting to inland, in anger and revenge, he hits the turtle on the head with a bamboo stick, and pushed it over on its back. Halfway through building another raft, the man feels remorse leaving the turtle upside down and tries to save it, but it is too heavy to flip over. He desperately runs to revive the turtle with water, but it is dead, he falls asleep next to it. The turtle's shell splits down the middle during the night and to the man's surprise, he sees a woman lying inside of the turtle shell. The man tries to revive the woman, making a shelter over her to protect her from the sun, she awakes after it starts raining. The man notices her gone, searching for her, he finds her in the coastline, he gives her his shirt. The woman drags the empty turtle shell into the sea and sets it off, the man does the same with his half-built raft, the two soon form a strong and enduring romance. Some years later, the couple has a son who is a curious boy, who learns to swim after accidentally falling into a small cavern and forms a peculiar relationship with other turtles in the ocean. Growing up, the son grows accustomed to the island, then a tsunami hits the island, no one is severely hurt, but the island's forest is nearly demolished. After cleaning the island and burning the bamboo remains, the son has a dream about swimming away, he tells his parents its time for him to leave the nest and go into adulthood, he swims away with a trio of green turtles. The man and the woman remain and spend the rest of their lives on the island, growing old together, but still very much in love. One night the man looks at the moon over the ocean for the final time and closes his eyes, the woman grieves as he has passed away. The next morning, she lies next to him with deep sadness, holds the man's hand for one last time, and then transforms back into a red turtle and returns to the sea. This film has no dialogue, only the music score by Laurent Perez Del Mar and sound effects to tell the story, it is very simplistic, but with moments of tenderness, some action and a romance, and the art house style animation is beautiful and colourful, definitely a film with universal appeal, a most very watchable animated fantasy drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. Very good!

I was skeptical about watching this movie at first, even though I generally love Studio Ghibli movies. The lack of dialogue worried me. I don't care for the silent stuff, and thats just a preference, but I was completely wrong to question The Red Turtle. Its moving in ways live action movies can't quite hit you. The visuals aren't so bad either. This was downright enchanting, I cried like three times, so worth watching.

I don't regret seeing this, but I wouldn't have missed much if I hadn't.Positive Spin: A long, beautiful moving painting. Presents a fable without imposing meaning or purpose, allowing you to find your own.Negative Spin: A lot of beautiful pictures that don't communicate much. The characters say essentially nothing the entire movie. They don't express much non-verbally either, besides the most basic of emotions. Although there are scenes, there's essentially no plot. Inexplicable events occur, and are never explained. The movie ends abruptly with no closure.

This is the most barren, boring, and tedious of a film that Studio Ghibli has ever made. I am a long time fan of Studio Ghibli, with Spirited Away being my favorite, but it seems they are really struggling lately. They are branching out into directions most people don't want. The Red Turtle strays into the realm of avant- garde cinema, in that there is no dialogue, no plot, no explanation for anything you see, and no pay-off for sitting through an hour and a half of ambiance. I don't understand what they were trying to accomplish by completely avoiding dialogue. Dialogue is crucial for character development and communication between characters. Cast Away did a great job of getting around the problem of only having one character, by creating the character of Wilson the volleyball. Imagine Cast Away without Wilson, without any tension, and moving along at a snail's pace, with an ending as meaningless and nonsensical as the ending of Lost, and you've got the Red Turtle. It's a pointless, meaningless film, and it's a black mark on Studio Ghibli's reputation.