Lu Over THe WaLL
Having a fin time of it
released 6 december PG | 112 minutes Director masaaki Yuasa Cast shôta shimoda, Kanon Tani, soma saito, shinichi shinohara
A problem with indie-spirited animated family films, like Kubo and When Marnie Was There, is that they can feel self-consciously virtuous and faintly preachy. Lu Over The Wall is zanier and more eccentric than these films, without collapsing into slapstick.
Set in a Japanese fishing town, this colourful anime is the tale of a solitary teenage boy, Kai, whose flair for synthesising digital tunes draws the attention of little-girl mermaid Lu. She’s ecstatically friendly, springing round on her fins, turning dogs into fish, and taking Kai on magic journeys both above and beneath the sea.
It’s all rather delightful. Little Lu herself is utterly charming, as is the film’s bouncy freehand drawing (which gets really wild towards the end). The second half introduces another wonderful fantasy character, though the later story developments don’t always gel. As in many anime, the climax runs on and on for the hell of it. Moreover, Studio Ghibli fans may complain that Lu Over The Wall is too close to Ponyo, another mermaid anime, but Lu has enough merry verve to comfortably co-exist with that film, and viewers may prefer it.
Lu’s not a classic, but it’s highly enjoyable and entirely suitable for kids, if they’re okay with subtitles – unfortunately, no English dub has been made yet. Mark Arden
The film originated as a vampire story, which may explain why the mermaids bite people and animals to transform them.