Movie Review: Animal Crossing

Well boys, we did it, depression is no more.

As of today, Animal Crossing New Horizons is finally out! It feels so surreal since Animal Crossing fans have been waiting for so long. In case you are not aware, Animal Crossing is a life simulator game where you play as a new resident of a town populated by adorable animal villagers. Unlike other games, Animal Crossing has no end, it is simply life, and it can be very therapeutic. This 2006 movie is based on the second game in the franchise, Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS. In this movie we follow a young girl named Ai, as she moves into Animal Village, and not much happens actually. This movie feels more like a slice-of-life episodic series, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Despite the movie using the the original Japanese names for the characters, I will be using their localized English names for simplicity. 

The movie begins introducing us to our main character, Ai. She is taken into Animal Village, and goes to the Town Hall where she meets the mayor, Tortimer, a tortoise who had been the mayor of Animal Village for many years (Although as of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, he has retired, and the player character takes over as mayor). Tortimer tells her that she needs to go visit Tom Nook at his shop, Nook's Cranny, as he is her landlord. Upon meeting, Tom Nook, just like in the games, puts Ai straight to work to help pay off her house loan. During this part Ai gets to meet all of her new neighbors as well. The first villager she meets is a peppy cat named Rosie. Next is the lazy alligator, Alfonso (who wears a cute little Mario shirt). She then meets the Able sisters, Mable, and Sable who run the clothing shop. Now after a hard day of work, Ai finally arrives at her new home. Though on her way she comes across a human boy from the next town over named, Yu. The next day while delivering a package to Apollo, the Eagle, Yu returns, accidentally knocking her over into Apollo's garden, crushing some of his flowers. She then meets Mr. Resetti, who in the games would only appear if you turn off the game without saving first to punish the player. Ai learns from Mr. Resetti that Apollo might be at the museum's cafe. At the museum she meets the owl siblings, Blathers, and Celeste who run the museum together. From Blathers we find out the the museum is almost complete, but they have yet to find one remaining fossil, the Seismosaurus (Nowadays, it's referred to as Diplodocus instead). Down in the cafe, we meet Brewster, the pigeon who runs the cafe, as well as Caesar, the Gorilla, and Cyrano the Anteater. Ai then meets Apollo, she tries to apologize to him, but he doesn't seem to respond making Ai think that he is mad at her.

On her last delivery of the day, Ai meets Margie, the elephant. The two bond over sharing cherries, and talking about each other's dreams for the future. Margie is hoping that she can become a famous fashion designer one day. The two then compare their aspirations, and talents to Cherry Pie. Margie states that you shouldn't leave a cherry pie in the fridge because then you might forget about it, just like how it's good to practice your talents, or risk getting a bit rusty. Ai then says that Margie's sketch book must be her cherry pie. We then skip a bit forward to nighttime where Ai is walking along the beach when she stumbles across a message in a bottle that speaks of a Winter Festival Miracle. Although she has no idea of what it could mean at the time. The movie skips forward a bit to the middle of summer. One evening when Ai is walking along the beach once more, she finds another message in a bottle. This time it's asking her to plant trees in certain areas of the village, complete with a map of where she needs to plant them. The next day, or so Yu, and Alfonso are searching the village for fossils. Rosie then mentions that she had found a whole bunch of them awhile back. The boys then have Ai, Margie, and Rosie join them on a small adventure to find the fossils. They end up in a large cave where they do find the fossils, but they also find something better. They come across an entire Seismosaurus fossil. Yu tries to break the fossil free only to make the cave start crumbling in on itself. The group make it out in time, but now no one will be able to get the Seismosaurus. Later that night is the Fireworks Festival, where the famous K.K. Slider is going to preform live (I wish I could see him live, America why you so boring). There Margie requests the song K.K. Bossa, which really is one of the best songs in the series. A little while after the festival, Ai goes to the beach again, and finds yet another message in a bottle, this is going somewhere trust me.

The movie then skips to early fall where Ai is approached by Rosie. Rosie berates Ai for not being at Margie's farewell party. The thing is though is that, despite being her best friend Ai was not even made aware of such a thing. Ai feeling hurt that Margie would leave without telling her heads out to the cafe to try, and calm down. However at the cafe, K.K. Bossa, Margie's favorite song comes on the radio, and the girl begins crying. Upon walking back home, still a bit bummed out she comes across the wandering artist, Wendell, the walrus. Ai takes him back to her home, and gives him some food, and water. She then finds a letter from Margie. The letter reads that she apologizes for leaving without telling her. She didn't want to leave for her next step in life with tears in her eyes, since she knew saying goodbye to her best friend would make her feel sad. Ai goes back into her house only to find Wendell gone, a painting left from where he was, kinda like in the actual game. Feeling uplifted by Margie's letter, Ai decides that she must make her own cherry pie, first by believing in herself more. Rosie also stops by, and apologizes to Ai for what she said. Ai forgives her as the two watch a meteor shower fill the sky. We skip time again to winter time, specifically the day of the Winter Festival. Ai walks around the village taking notice of the trees she had planted that summer as the letter asked. She wonders if the Winter Festival Miracle will even happen, oh little does she know man. That night, the village comes alive with a assortment of lights decorating both the trees, and the homes of the residents of Animal Village. Though as the Winter Festival starts, something strange happens. What appears to be a UFO crashes in the middle of the forest. In the UFO is Gulliver the seagull who during the Wild World game traveled via UFO instead of ship for some reason. Glad he went back to his seafaring roots as of New Leaf. The town's people actually do believe him to be an alien, and agree to help fix his ship.

Ai, Rosie, Alfonso. and Yu group up together to find one of the pieces which leads them back to the cave they had found back in summer. They however cannot push the boulder blocking the entrance, but help arrives in a big surprise. Margie had returned to Animal Village to celebrate the Winter Festival with her friends. Though hearing about the UFO, and hearing that her friends went to the cave she headed off to help. With her strength, they are able to move the boulder out of the way. Inside the cave, Yu spots a gear on top of the Seismosaurus fossil. With the cold making the cave more sturdy, Yu is able to climb up the fossil, and retrieve the gear. On the way down though he slips, and falls off the fossil. He is saved by his friend Alfonso though, while Ai catches the gear. The hood that Yu was wearing as part of his costume also comes off, revealing that this would be the first time anyone would be able to see his actual face, and Ai calls him cute (This is so sweet, i'm going to get diabetes). The group then return to Gulliver where they find that someone had already found a gear that looks identical to the one that they just got. Suddenly the gear begins to glow, and float, and shift into it's true form. Turns out, that gear was a tiny UFO that they saved, also a real UFO this time. Above them appears the mothership, but of course it's friendly, and only wants the tiny one back. Upon returning the small UFO, the fleet then creates a constellation in the image of Ai before leaving as thanks. Blathers decides that Ai should be the winner of the decoration contest since she used the sky to decorate the town. Gulliver then leaves, and thinks to himself that he really didn't intend for that to happen. How was he supposed to know that arranging the trees in that way would attract a real UFO. This also means that Gulliver was the one behind the bottled messages. Everyone celebrates as Ai finally feels like a proper member of the community. Apollo also apologizes to Ai for not making it clear that he wasn't mad at her the whole time. During the credits we learn that Margie had finally made a design that everyone wears. Tom Nook's shop also upgrades, just like how it does in the games. Blathers is able to receive the Seismosaurus. Ai helps Apollo re-grow his garden. Ai also becomes great friends with Celeste (Though she was starting to be friends with her as of the winter story arc). With the end of the credits is the end of the movie.

So, i'll state right now. I'm probably a little biased because Animal Crossing is one of the things in this world that makes me feel so happy. The plot may not be the best, but I think it makes up for it with charm, and wholesomeness. The more I play the games, or re-watch this movie, I just want to be a part of this joyful world. Especially if my cat, Mr. June was a villager. He'd make for a good character I think. Back on subject though! Another thing I really love about this movie is the soundtrack, and sound design, lifting straight from the game. Funny enough I actually have owned this movie on DVD for quite awhile. However, it is only in Japanese, it's only been recently that I've finally watched, and understood it completely. As you can probably guess, Animal Crossing is pretty special to me, so don't mind if I just disappear for a few months once I get my copy of New Horizons. This movie gets a 5 out of 5 Paws up from me (Mainly because of the sentimental value it has to me).