Mio in the Land of Faraway

I had this on tape and watched this a million times as a kid, but as an adult the pacing is jarringly rushed, and the characters are cardboard cutouts with incredibly basic lines. the final confrontation is still pretty badass though, like luke vs vader level intense, although maybe that's still the kid in me.

Good news is that the Swedish dub is not terrible. Bad news is that there's a Swedish dub so we're missing out on lines from Christopher Lee and tiny adorable Christian Bale. Look, I really don't wanna slam Astrid Lindgren, but the story is pretty standard lonely-orphan-wish-fulfilment/prophesied-chosen-one of the kind that J. K. Rowling would later perfect. This 80s movie version is serviceable without being impressive. Makes you wonder what Studio Ghibli could get out if it.

such a great book made into such a shitty movie