A chance encounter with a stranger results in a young girl being burdened with some old problems in this anime loosely based on the fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones. It injects a number of fascinating child-like ideas into the genre, but struggles to make them fit with more clear-cut notions of age, wisdom and inner beauty. The girl's story is fine, but outside of that things aren't well-defined or sturdy enough for the usual kind of Miyazaki magic to take hold often. There are too many random elements that don’t hold up under scrutiny.
3½ black feathers out of 5
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“Where we’re going, we don’t need ________”
A) Mom’s permission. B) Roads. C) Pants.