River of stars

I wasn’t going to bother writing a review but tbh I’m incredibly annoyed at this movie and the reviews claiming it’s wholesome. Spoilers are to be expected. I can only guess that the people who liked it must’ve been like the main character, trying to be smart and grown up and with a crush on an older person (which isn’t unusual). But watching this movie was uncomfortable, and were I a parent I definitely wouldn’t show this to my kid (on my tv it was listed for 7+). The seemingly innocent story concept of random penguins appearing in a town, and the beautiful imagery in the animation could almost make one forget that the majority of the story revolves around this kid’s crush on this adult dentist woman. And if this were a proper coming-of-age story one might expect the kid to realize that he shouldn’t try to grow up too fast, or should maybe focus on girls his own age, or focus on his research that he likes to feel smart about, or if nothing else have his parents decide maybe they’re letting their kid have too much alone time to this woman who we never see check in with the parents (except in the one scene where the dad picks the kid up). The movie starts with the boy saying he’s already focused on her and it ends with him saying the same thing. The fact that she’s not even human but some sort of fantasy/alien being doesn’t do much toward fixing that incredibly uncomfortable aspect of the film. The woman doesn’t encourage the kid’s feelings, fortunately, and reiterates several times that the main character is a kid, and to stop looking at her boobs. Doesn’t keep whoever was in charge of the storyboarding/scene direction from providing the unfortunate viewers with several shots of the dentist lady’s boobs. Oh! Also there were several rather juvenile scenes in which the kids punch each other in the crotch during fight scenes. So yeah, as an adult it’s terribly unenjoyable despite the penguins, and for kids it would be promoting all sorts of ideas that no one wants their kid to emulate. And what’s most annoying is that the movie is otherwise so pretty and in such a seemingly innocent style that you go in thinking it’s going to be a good wholesome movie - but it only manages to be that if you ignore the entire point of the plot, which is apparently for this kid to double down on his desire to someday be with the fantasy woman. I wish I’d thought to look up reviews first, but I trusted the trailer too much I guess.