New York International Children’s Film Festival [Film Festival Preview]

The New York International Children’s Film Festival comes to various theaters throughout the Big Apple for its 26th edition. This year’s festival will run March 3-19, and stands as North America’s largest festival geared towards younger audiences. Here is our preview of this year’s slate, highlighting a few gems from the lineup:

Starting off our preview of this year’s New York International Children’s Film Festival is a blast from the past of fascinating proportions. Directed by legendary anime director Isao Takahata and with “concepts” and character designs from none other than Hayao Miyazaki comes Panda, Go Panda, or more specifically two newly restored shorts from that franchise. The series focuses on a seven-year-old girl named Mimiko, who, after setting out on her own, encounters a father/child pair of talking pandas. Hijinks ensue in what is one of Takahata’s earliest works, but also one of his most outright enjoyable.

The new restoration here is easily the star of the show, as these films are relatively thin farces of sorts. Clearly made for the youngest of cinephiles, adults will get a real kick out of the energy the film has, which is seemingly boundless. The animation is kinetic and the character designs are very much prime examples of this period of anime. Performances are also arch in many ways, which makes for a raucous experience regardless of one’s vintage. At just a pinch over 70 minutes, this pair of shorts will leave even the most cynical of film goer leaving with a smile on their face.

Speaking of films from top-tier creative teams, co-directors Julien Chheng and Jean-Christophe Roger continue to chronicle the journey of beloved characters Ernest and Celestine (they took over the series with 2017’s short Ernest and Celestine’s Winter), this time with the feature Ernest and Celestine: A Trip To Gibberitia. Making its US debut here at NYICFF 2023, A Trip To Gibberitia sees the beloved pair journey to Ernest’s home, Gibberitia, despite Ernest’s cantankerous disinterest in heading back to his old stomping grounds. However, a bear needs his violin repaired, and the only place one can get his style of instrument taken care of is back in his homeland.

However, their journey takes a turn for the worst when, upon arrival, they discover that not only is the master luthier gone but the entire city is under a ban on all music. The usually bustling streets are now all but silent, and it becomes up to our ragtag duo (along with a masked outlaw) to undo this unjust ban. In a story very much about dealing with fascism, A Trip To Gibberitia stands as one of the more beautifully textured works in this year’s lineup, with a runtime under 80 minutes that never once talks down to any potential viewer. Dense enough for parents yet lively and gorgeously animated enough for younger viewers, the latest in the Ernest and Celestine series is a testament to the power of animation as a storytelling medium and how bringing together genius craftspeople and incredible performers can make a work of true art.

Now onto an adaptation of a different sort. Based on Tsujimura Mizuki’s young adult novel of the same name, Lonely Castle In The Mirror is directed by Keiichi Hara and introduces viewers to Kokoro, a young student fed up with the life she’s apparently been given. From the vile students she calls classmates to the empathy-free teachers she’s forced to take guidance from, all she craves for is a world where she can simply disappear. However, after discovering a portal to another world in a bedroom mirror, she lands herself, along with six other similarly jaded students, in a castle spearheaded by a young woman in a wolf mask.

On the hunt for a magic key, the seven students begin bonding as they start planning to find the key and make the wish that it grants to those who discover it. A gorgeously rendered coming-of-age story, the film plays on ideas of family and intimacy, with the characters becoming stronger the more that they share about themselves and the closer they become. While the music here is likely the biggest stumbling point (some of it simply feels arch in a way that doesn’t match the film’s overall energy), the film is a rather rousing coming-of-age tale that embraces the loneliness of one’s teenage years, and the strange otherworldliness of this time period in one’s life. The performances are uniformly great, and the animation is also top-notch. That said, the film does deal with heavier themes like sexual assault/harassment, so this may not be for the younger children in your life.

Finally, closing out the CriterionCast coverage of NYICFF 2023 is an anime that will hopefully also find an audience when it hits theaters. Entitled Goodbye, Don Glees!, the film comes from GKIDS (so yes, you’ll eventually get to see it), and follows three friends Roma, Toto and Drop (who call themselves the titular Don Glees), as they go from simple teens messing around town to being blamed for a forest fire that ravaged a local area. From writer/director Atsuko Ishizuka, the film is a fascinating, beautifully animated coming-of-age story that is as full of teenage energy as it is regret and melancholy.

At just 95 minutes, the film is a briskly paced coming-of-age tale and one that makes the absolute most of its rural setting. The animation here is oftentimes awe-inspiring, pairing brilliantly with the film’s nuanced and textured story that’s as comedic as it is strangely reflective. The direction here is as wonderfully evocative as its screenplay, with each performance adding its own texture to the proceedings. It’s not a groundbreaking work by any means, but watching as these three young men attempt to clear their names amidst a backdrop of their lives starting to separate turns the film into a startlingly poignant rumination on a moment in everyone’s lives where the future holds boundless possibilities but all you can do is mourn the loss of the present.