Peter Dawson

This is a hard film to rate (and really sums up why I hate ratings). On the one hand, it's a very pretty film, has some good comedic timing, and the overall message is actually quite sweet. However, the plot of Dragon Quest V is translated very poorly, not only having Act 1 comically skipped through, but taking away a lot of unique elements to make the plot feel a lot more cliche. The characters are also a lot less active, making it come off less like they're going out and doing things to advance the plot rather than just the plot sort of advancing. While the characters have fine personalities and great designs there's just this loss of agency that's quite frustrating. Ultimately, while I can't hate this film, I can't really recommend it, neither to fans of Dragon Quest or not, since non-fans may not see the big deal while fans will be annoyed with the changes and such (probably).