After losing her father, things seem to be really tragic as Momo has to move with her mother to the family's old house on a remote island. She appears to be discovering a message from her father that causes strange events that completely reflect the course of things.
Despite the hand-drawn film's supernatural edge, one of Okiura's lyrical strengths is acquainting a viewer with the poetry of the real - animated reflections of ordinary, beautiful things we see in everyday life without actually noticing them at all.
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
September 05, 2014
The new anime A Letter to Momo feels like the movie that Hayao Miyazaki's final film should have been.
Here, magic-realism and emotional realism run together. The story can lapse into jokiness or drag its heels a little. But when Momo's anguish bursts, and she soon realizes how sad her mother's truly been, the film bursts to life.
It's difficult to imagine any children's movie retaining the attention of its intended audience for two hours, but this movie feels especially monotonous.
Though made by the studio Production I.G, this is a markedly Ghibli-esque affair, overtly referencing Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro and Princess Mononoke among others.
