It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The most imaginative anime film I have ever seen. I just saw this "wonder" tonight at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. This film had an interesting and slow beginning which left you wondering what this movie was about. There was a strange conflict at the start between some fantasy creatures which was short and quick, and then opened into an extended bucolic Japanese family scene in the countryside centered on the life of a few school kids. Then surprise, the kids are transported into space on a galactic adventure which literally boggles the imagination and leaves you glued to your seat. But, the movie goes on too long. About 35 to 40 minutes too long. The film makers should not have "tacked on" the Star Wars type mini adventure at the end. It was overkill, it was not needed, really. But, like I said, it is the most imaginative anime I have ever seen. And I just know there was a ton of animators and art students in tonight's audience. I can't describe this movie, you just have to see it.

Version I saw: (subtitled) UK DVD release (projected) Actors: 6/10 Plot/script: 6/10 Photography/visual style: 7/10 Music/score: 6/10 Overall: 7/10 Welcome to the Space Show is a Japanese anime movie. Although (despite what some ignorant people will tell you) there are many such works which are targeted at an adult audience, with deep characterization, complex themes and the like, WttSS is most definitely a kids' film. It evokes Japanese classics like My Neighbour Totoro and Galaxy Express 999, as well as American fare such as ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars and The Goonies. You may note that these are all from the 70s and 80s, and indeed, it does seem to represent a bygone era of innocence, when cinematic kids were not wise-cracking and genre savvy. All this was presented with a bold, colourful visual style that comes from the most modern computer graphics. I found this really rather charming.Unfortunately, the film has problems with pacing. It moves very slowly for large chunks, which might be okay, but there are also confusing rushes of plot and exposition, as well as frenetic action scenes that seem a bit out of place. The whole finale is a big action scene that goes on FAR too long, reminding me painfully of Katsuhiro Otomo's disappointing steampunk anime film Steamboy.I have my doubts that kids would have much patience for this, and may end up bored and restless despite the colour, life and good characters with whom they can identify. For my part, I found it good, but it could have been so much better.

For the most part, I really like films like this because the self discovery issues. Five young kids go to camp at a school house in order to get away from adults for a week. But instead of doing the same old stuff kids do, they discover a hurt what looks like a dog. However he is an alien sent on a mission to protect a plant which has not been alive for over five billion years.In the mix are three bounty hunters who must get their hands on the plant at all costs to bring back to their employer. Since the kids find out the dog they saved is an alien, they all get a wish to explore the farthest reaches away from adults as possible. So - they go to the moon where on the dark side is a grand city embedded within the surface. This leads a series of events for which all six venture across galaxies to hunt down the dreaded poachers.In the chase, one of the kids are kidnapped, and it is up to the other four kids to save her. Pochi, the alien dog uses all of his resources in order to find what is known as The Space Show. A stage event for all aliens to see where Ami the youngest of the five is being held captive. During this event, Pochi learns of who was the architect behind the stage show and why. Now all must try and save Ami in order for the kids to get back to earth in time to meet their parents at the week's end.All in all, it was a grandiose scale of a movie. With fantastic CGI sets of such calibre, that watching was a treat in itself for strange lands, strange cities, and strange aliens. I especially loved the fact that each child had issues to work along the way, like knowing what's right, and what's wrong. To make decisions that could get them into trouble later on, but deciding that doing the right thing was far a better cost than to leave someone behind. They got to do an honest days work among aliens, instead of sluffing off for a week. They learnt to get along in better ways strengthening their friendships. Plus they learnt how to endure hardships, and obstacles, which they fended off with early naive skills. Kids do bounce back in many ways, and that is to say this movie held a lot of hope to those who do not have it. To some others who just watched it for detail, it is sad to see such narrow views about story lines. I thought this one had every element of the human condition.This wasn't about SPFX, it was about what is right, and wrong. What is good, and bad. Kids have a sense of being that no other can understand, and it is too childish to say it had no maturity. Yes it is a movie for kids, about kids. Nothing more. Yes the SPFX were fantastic, but what was important through the grand scale environment, was the kids had to save a friend. Dealing with problems at home, in school, with time off, or finding a rabbit.My view is the movie held all aspects of being human in an inhumane world. I give it ten of ten stars. Extremely recommended to those aged 9 and above. For the little ones who believes in heroes, not computers.

Group of school kids camping out for a week find a wounded dog and rescue it. It turns out that the dog is actually an alien studying earth plants. As a reward he takes the kids to the far side of the moon and beyond. Its complicated plot involving the title space TV show, poachers looking for Wasabi, a lost world and several other tid bits.Amazing feast for the eye has a plot that moves very slowly making it a long haul. It doesn't help that the film has sense of back story that often makes you wish it was even longer. I liked the ideas but found it a tough go. Watching the film at The New York International Cildrens Film Festival this afternoon I was struck by how restless the kids were.I've been going to the festival since it started and this was the most restless audience I've run across. Yes I and they liked it but it seemed like it took forever to get to the rousing climax.Worth a look but I's wait for DVD.