A Tree of Palme
A Tree of Palme
| 16 March 2002 (USA)
A Tree of Palme Trailers

A Tree of Palme is an interpretation of the Pinocchio tale. It concerns a small puppet, Palme, who was tasked by his creator to look over his ailing wife, Xian. After her passing, Palme is visited by a mysterious woman who he mistakenly believes to be Xian. Shaken out of his sadness, Palme accepts her request to deliver something special to a far-off place known as Tama. This sets Palme off on a journey to discover his own emotions, and what it truly means to be human.

Reviews
Claysaba

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

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Sameer Callahan

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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Lidia Draper

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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Stephanie

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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mini_axe_master

I recently bought 'A Tree of Palme' as I was interested in the idea that it was an adaptation of the Pinocchio story. It was amazing to watch with beautiful animation and music. I enjoyed it because even though Palme (a mechanical puppet) does not achieve his ultimate goal in the film it still leaves you with a sense of fulfilment.I must say after reading many peoples reviews of it and continuously comparing it with the works of myazaki and 'Akira' it highlighted to me that point that it is a difficult film to grasp. I think its a shame that people aren't open to new ideas and interpretations and are forever putting something that is genuinely brilliant down just because its not revolutionary or a big box office grosser.It is a film that opens your eyes to that world but only if you care to look.

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napolean_loves_nipples

The animation was good, the imagery was good, although not totally original, however, the story was too long, way too confusing, and over the top dramatic. After about an hour I couldn't wait to get it over with. With so many characters that have nothing to contribute and plot elements that either come from nowhere or go nowhere this movie really wasn't one movie at all and would have been better of as a short series or possibly two movies. If you like this kind of typical story maybe you will like it, but frankly, I've been spoiled by much more creative stories that actually have some sort message to tell. Go rent a Miyazaki film and watch it twice, you'll get way more out of it.

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Sarah

The teasers for Tree of Palme try to pass it off as a sort of allegory for a fairy tale with actual meaning, then immediately start raving about the animation. I should have known what that meant.The main character, Palme, is a good example of the whole movie's problem. One minute, Palme is a humble hero in search of himself, the next a violent psycho with an unhealthy fixation on a girl he once took care of.Like all of the characters in the movie, Palme is poorly defined. You do not bond with the characters at all, although Shatta has acquired a couple of fan girls. It seems that the writer was more interested in cramming all the drama and complexity he could into this movie than actually exploring his characters' motivations and personalities.New, useless story lines were being introduced in the last fifteen minutes of the movie. The writer seriously needed to streamline his story. Perhaps he was trying to be epic, but it was simply too much information for a two-hour movie. However I can't help but wonder if a plot with so many dimensions and characters would have been better suited for a TV series or graphic novel.In the last five minutes of the movie, I simply could not endure the sheer lack of quality any longer and began laughing at how contrived the characters, the relationships, and the whole plot was. I touched my companion and he started cracking up too, as did a young man seated behind us. We tried so hard to control ourselves, but we simply could not take the terrible quality of this movie.On the bright side, the animation is incredible and viewers will find themselves admiring the lush backgrounds and charming character designs. The animation almost guides you; when you don't care about the characters, it tells you how to feel.

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dbborroughs

This is one of the best looking anime features I've run across. The animation is glorious, the design and the world created are rich in images and wonders to see. The trouble is that the movie is a snail paced retelling of Pinocchio that even at two hours and sixteen minutes doesn't tell the whole story, there are gaps between sequences that leave you puzzling how we got from A to B. The film is suppose to be a very personal project by the director who worked on it for ten years, but there is such a thing as being too close to a project and in this case he was much too close. I can see how the lack of complete explanation might appeal to some people but for me it was more bewildering than intriguing, the film didn't make a lot of sense and took forever not making it. (Visuals are a ten out of ten, the rest is up to you, I give it a five over all simply because the visuals are so fantastic it makes watching it interesting at least for a majority of it)

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