best movie i've ever seen.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Hugo Pratt was a master narrator. His comic book adventures of Corto Maltese were elegant and unique, with charismatic dreamer Corto, his ruthless companion Rasputin (a creature of pure Id and malevolence who still miraculously came across as sympathetic), exotic settings and memorable secondary characters.La Cour Secrète des Arcanes is a worthy adaptation of Corto's best adventure. With stylish art direction, a pleasant soundtrack and an effective atmosphere, this cartoon is intriguing and features characters of remarkable depth like Ungern Khan and the exceptional Shangai Lil.End of WWI: adventurer Corto Maltese is recruited by a secret society to recover the treasure of the Tsars; his companions are friendly rival Rasputin and enigmatic Shangai Lil. To say more would be a pity - don't be deceived by the outrageously low IMDb rating.I believe Pratt would have loved this, and there can be no greater compliment.8/10

Corto Maltese is one of the greatest graphical novel characters, or even literature characters for that matter, ever created. He's an adventurer, a pirate, a murderer and a lover, what ever suits his needs. Or then again he might spend entire story by just watching other people do all the adventuring. Then he just disappears just to turn out from somewhere else.This particular story is from the more action end: Rasputin (Corto's insane Russian friend, who without any doubt is The Rasputin) and Corto are after Russian gold train, but then again so are lots of other people too. This gives a change to display some action scenes and conflicts between Corto and other parts of the story: Chinese, Russians, Mongols.As for all Pratt's stories go, the story line is rather multi threaded, but it's hardly explained in any part, sometimes things just seem to happen and no one is explaining why. But then again there's no real need for that either, it's just the way these stories are told.Animation is mostly well done, there are some parts which are little lacking, especially the human animation is little blocky in some places. All the special effects scenes are done with 3D animation, but they blend in with the painted backgrounds and characters rather seamlessly in most cases. Though there are some places where the difference is too visible.This movie should be a treat for all Hugo Pratt fans, as I myself found it to have same mood that most of Pratt's comics have. I wouldn't mind having more of this.

I think this is the king of all animation films. Pratt's "economic" drawing and his particular use of time are fully followed here. The action scenes are outstanding. The choice of the voices was accurate –even if one could think that Corto's voice should have a mix of different accents instead of speaking perfect french. It is, indeed, difficult to get into Corto's world at the first try; but I think the film –slowly starting, as in the original comic, with some kind of remembrance or reverie, an outside-of-time dialog with Bouche Dorée– does a great work in that way. Anyway, if at the end Corto's personality remains a mystery it must be said that it is the same for those who have read the whole series: Corto is an enigma, and the films succeeds in respecting that –instead of turning him into a simple adventure hero. Thus, the question "what is he really looking for?" remains unanswered. From my point of view, the difficulty of the film is not to get into Corto's universe for the those which are not familiar with it, but that it requires a minimum of historical knowledge. Indeed, some notions about the Russian revolution and the political situation of China at the beginnings of XX century are really helpful for the fully understanding of the film. In fact, the comic book includes some pages outlining this historical context; also, a map is as useful here as in The Lord of the Rings. In a word, watching this Corto Maltese film is as delightful as reading the comic book –and that is saying enough.

I am a big Corto Maltese and Hugo Pratt fun and in a way a cinephile. This movie was unfortunately a disappointment. It only captures very small parts of Corto's character and the general mysticism normally surrounding this hero and his adventures. In fact, everyone in the movie seems to have acquired a French attitude and face (incl. the Chinese) and I think only Rasputin is close to the enjoyable and surreal persona of Pratt. The animation is fairly well made but it becomes especially week in times of action. The more dreamy sceneries and scenes were much better. Overall, not a movie that I would see again (despite my love for Corto) but not one that I would totally reject. See it as a homage but dont expect anything breathtaking as the original graphical novel(s).