Paul Banta

i was one of the few who remember watching the animated movie's limited theatrical release back in 1978 in a theater and as a teenager was blown-away by it's very non-Disney style (not to mention Art Garfunkel's tear-jerker "Bright Eyes"). When I saw this pop up on the Netflix cue, I thought I'd give it a skeptical watch, but wound-up watching it from beginning-to-end in one sitting! It's beautifully-rendered characters and backgrounds (which seemed to noticeably improve as the episodes progressed, but the older ones didn't get upgraded). With nearly five hours to tell the story, it was closer to the book too (though they still left a few things out). It was the most satisfying version of the film to come out since the original animated version. That Sam Smith song over the closing credits is worth a listen too. Some decent voice acting too. The only drawback was the musical score seemed pretty generic over most of the scenes and doesn't compare with the lovely strings and woodwinds version of the original. Very much worth the watch. A rare Netflix win for this picky customer!