Tsubasa Chronicle: Tori Kago no Kuni no Himegimi

At the risk of echoing other reviews, the story is pretty basic and doesn't offer anything groundbreaking. As movies are usually given around 2 hours, this would likely have been padded out with more explanation if it had been given the time. In a way, I wish it would have been since what was there already had potential, but given that it wasn't with its 30 or so runtime minutes, I would rather judge this less like a movie and more like an episode or OVA.

Looking at it from the perspective of an episode or OVA makes me feel far more positive about it in ... the context of the series. It might feel like an afterthought if you're watching it years after seeing the original series and for this, I don't blame you, but given that I saw it not long afterward, I didn't feel that I was left waiting for something that didn't deliver. It actually fit in with the style of the series storytelling quite well and could've easily passed as another episode. If that had been the case, I would've easily considered it one of the best episodes.

The art was excellent with a vibrant colour palette and the animation was smooth. The panning stills people complained about? Gone. There are scenes where they used shortcuts (obvious if you know what to look for), but they still made the series far more visually appealing than pretty much anything in the original series. Their fight scenes were far better choreographed and it looks like they had access to a better team with far more reference material and experience.

The sound quality was fine with excellent voice acting, but what even was happening with the music? It was so out of place in certain scenes that it actively broke immersion. If the music mixing in the episode could be touched up, it'd be basically perfect.

As for the characters, they expect you to pretty well know everyone going in so you don't learn anything new about them, however, their characterizations are vastly improved in this movie. Body language had been an issue in the original series where the characters themselves were pretty much as static as the still shots. Here, characters have a larger range of emotions and expression with weight added to their interactions even if we're not learning anything special. Though they aren't going to win any awards, I was still happy to see Fai do more than close his eyes and smile at everything.

Overall, nothing groundbreaking, but an enjoyable experience nonetheless.

While billed as a movie, 'Birdcage Kingdom' is more of an extended episode of the TV series or a slightly longer OVA episode to compliment the XXXHolic Movie. The plot is little more than a chapter from the manga or an episode from the TV series just stripped of most of any depth either one might have.

It's a very simple and basic story of our heroes landing in one of the many "world of the week" seen in an adventure and fighting "big bad of the week" and resolving the plot at the end. Ideal for a short especially for one aimed ... at a younger audience over the older demographic the manga was written for, or the more all-age-demographic the TV show aimed for. While not really vital to see or read the source material of the movie you might be thrown off just a bit if you jump into this blind with no information. The movie does it's best to set the background of the plot by recreating the first encounter with Yuko who explains the needed sacrifice from Syaoran to save Sakura's life so even then getting lost in this movie should not be an issue.

The art and animation style is lovely, being it is a movie, with a beautiful and lively color pallet and really great and detailed art direction. With character desiigns by Yoko Kikuchi it plays a little more closely to CLAMP's signature art style but without the stiff limitations often seen.

The cinematography also is pretty creative in the same right and shows a lot of high professionalism despite the short length. Proved to not be a throwaway B-Team project against the A-Team Holic project, I.G did clearly commit some resources sadly lacking from the TV series and later OVAs.

Much if any music by Yuki Kajiura is unfortunately tossed into the background and doesn't offer anything new for the franchise OST being just one or two simple pieces that you will barely notice, topped with some of the more iconic pieces such as "Break the sword of Justice."

Likely in an effort to differentiate themselves from the TV series and to work around Kajiura's schedule they quickly edited a few pieces together and downplayed much of the original score. There is a opening theme by singer Kinya, who also provided the opening them songs for the TV series, but the song seems placed in the movie for the sake of having an opening theme given it plays for only five seconds and doesn't get it's full rendition anywhere in the movie it self. Yui Makino on the other hand gets to show her vocal talents with a full ending song, "Amrita" which is a nice ending theme to close out as the credits roll.

The acting in the Japanese version is very solid with a great cast of Miyu Irino, Yui Makino, Tetsu Inada, Daisuke Namikawa and Mika Kikuchi. The English dubbing however is less than stellar with a handful of good performances but two weak performances by Monica Rial as Sakura and Carrie Savage as Mokona. Like in the series these two are the weak links and are both a miscast for these important roles. Jason Libercht however does perfect to capture Syaoran and manages to catch what Irino brings to the role perfect. Same can be said of Chris Sabat as Kurogane and Vic Mignogna as Fai.

The TRC movie is visually beautiful and well made but doesn't really offer anything much more given it's strangely undercut running time, a suitable pre-show for the Holic movie but not much to give on it's own. Fans will enjoy it enough but there's not much to entice a general audience.

Unlike its companion (xxxHolic: Midsummer's Night Dream), this film offers nothing to a household name as Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. If possible, avoid it at all costs.

Story (3/10): I'm being nice here, since there is no plot. I am no against plotless movies, that is, movies in which its plot is developed through music, surrealism, and style rather than straightforward, understandable actions that lead the storyline. I'm open to avant-garde storytelling. The xxxHolic movie partially falls into this kind of cinema; however, Tsubasa's film pretends to have a traditional kind of plot but it's so filled with plot holes, nonsensical actions, characters that do things just ... because that makes this film accomplish nothing no matter how you look at it. At this point I can't tell what was the bad guy's goal. I can't tell what the birdcage was. I can't tell you a summary even if I wanted to. If you add the fact that the film contradicts Tsubasa's universe and even the film itself, things get worse: Mokona should act as their means to understand each other, a translator of the sorts, they even point it out early in the film, but no matter how far from other they all are, they can easily interact. The leader of the royal guards (I don't know the name) was easily kicked in the face by Fye but at the same time had no problem avoiding Syaoran's kick, even though the latter is a way more proficient physical combatant than Fye. To make things worse, Syaoran gets to be proficient again later on the film.

Art (5/10): The designs are nice, the animation is smooth which makes the battle scenes rather enjoyable, but the backgrounds look off every now and then. It makes the characters look like they're not there. For a feature film you'd expect more.

Sound (3/10): Nothing memorable. Not one single melody, sound effect or piece is worth mentioning.

Character (1/10): Characters here are here just for the sake of the "plot." The villain is the worst case. At the end you won't understand why he did what he did, and especially , why he did it the way he did it.

Enjoyment (3/10): Only enjoyable is you can just watch fights and give zero importance to what is going on there.

Overall (3/10): It's rather sad this is what they made to be the xxxHolic film's companion. They couldn't be so different in quality. I know the xxxHolic film was written by the Clamp's leader herself, but that's no excuse no make the Tsubasa film a worse than a mediocre job. It's like they tried to develop a complex plot but chopped many scenes out due to time constraints. The movie should have been 30-40 minutes longer at least to accomplish whatever it tried to accomplish. If possible, avoid this film. It's not worth +30 minutes of your time.