Movie Review - A Journey Through Fairyland

[Merlin]

Besides a Blockbuster in my town, there is a more personalized, individualistic video rental shop called Video Library. My sister and I browsed through a ‘yard sale’ they had there about two years ago, and we found a VHS tape that looked even older than I am. The film was “A Journey Through Fairyland,” an anime. Apparently, my sister recognized this, and so she bought it for less than five dollars. Not a bad deal for something so random and obscure!

I just now decided to review. Come fly with me, baby!

The film starts with fairies flying around in a field during nighttime, glowing various floras and concluding with dancing flowers. Already this reminds me of “Fantasia.”

Why is it that some potential geniuses can only be geniuses outside of the classroom?

Michael, a little boy who adores plants but sneezes enough to rival a famous dwarf, screws up in orchestra class. On top of being late, he bastardizes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with his loud disruptions. It’s clear that Michael would much rather spend time in the music school’s greenhouse than sit before a conductor. His teacher, Professor Lownote (ha), looks like a mix of George Darling and King Hubert.

“Stefan, unless I find my crown we don’t go to the reception!”

A very pretty girl, Laura, is interested in Michael, but he’s more interested in plants. He talks to plants and refers to them as friends. Clearly he needs a girl.

Laura is certainly unique; she is the only blond in a class of dark hairs.

He falls asleep in the greenhouse, and a star twinkles. A hot fairy blooms from a flower of the potted plant Michael just rescued earlier that day. What, is this now “Fantasia” meets “Pinocchio?” Anyway, Florence is the fairy’s name. We know this because she sings it. She glides around and makes flowers glow. Florence sounds a lot like Marylin Monroe, so you’d get the most enjoyment from this film if you’re a fan of breathy, sex kitten vocalizations.

She'd be a lot more beautiful if the VHS tapes weren't so poor!

Fairies can only come out at night, apparently. When the sun comes up, they go back to Flowerland. (Of course! Everyone knows that!). Florence, after meeting Michael, departs before daybreak and leaves behind a golden baton.

Michael is late to orchestra practice again the next morning, and he is as clumsy as Jerry Lewis. Lownote calls him to his office, and gives a few plot pointers: Michael’s parents (dad was a composer, mom was a violinist) are dead, and the music teacher was their friend and was given the duty of looking over Michael. The teacher then demonstrates “looking over Michael” by dismissing Michael from the orchestra. Bummer.

Michael goes to the very top of a cliff and plays his oboe. Don’t do it, Michael! You have so much to live! Wait, your parents are dead, you just got kicked out of an orchestra, and you chose a flower over an attractive girl. Hmm… Do what you want.

Florence appears that night in the greenhouse, where Michael sleeps again (jeez) and says, “I have a present for you, Michael. Just touch my bud with the magic wand.” (WHOA! Yeah, no comment!) She invites him to spend time in Flowerland. Michael accepts the invitation and touches Florence’s bud with the gold wand, and flies with Florence through a tunnel of rotoscoped waves. They are interrupted and separated by a very black goblin named Treble. Treble’s voice sounds like Richard Kind doing a Felix the Cat impression… which means that it’s fairly grating. Ugh.

“Normally I prefer screamo metal, but classical music will do for now.”

Michael tries to run to Flowerland, but he gets molested by a bunch of music notes while a synthetic orchestra plays in the background. Eventually both Michael and Treble are detained by some sleeping bubbles, but Treble eventually breaks free and uses the wand to mess around, and ultimately freezes everything.

By the way, the on and off narrator sounds like a woman who isn’t quite sure what she wants to sound like. It’s somewhat humorous.

Michael unfreezes Treble, and Treble returns the wand to Michael. Without further ado, Michael searches and finds Flowerland. He comes across flowers and fairies that dance to the Nutcracker suite’s “Waltz of the Flowers.” Okay, the filmmakers DEFINITELY saw “Fantasia,” no questions about it!

Wait, what’s with the name of the joint? Flowerland? Isn’t the English title of this film “A Journey Through Fairyland?” Well, then why didn’t they just use “Flowerland” in the title? Heh. No matter, I guess.

Michael and Florence are reunited, and in a flash of light Michael wears Peter Pan’s outfit. Florence, who is now significantly taller than her apparent romantic interest, dances with said interest. They dance with flower women with large, swirling skirts… dancing to the Nutcracker Suite…

THEY HAD TO HAVE SEEN “FANTASIA!”

Alas, the joyous dance is interrupted by Treble lookalikes, red women things, Hello Kitty, very anime-like critters, and—hold the trumpet, Hello Kitty?! Well, it’s not really surprising, considering the animation studio that created this movie was Sanrio! Yeah, I forgot to mention: Sanrio made this movie. They’re unquestionably best known for the Hello Kitty franchise, but they used to focus time and effort on motion pictures, too. They also made one of my childhood favorites, “The Sea Prince and the Fire Child.”

Maybe I should review “The Sea Prince and the Fire Child” (pictured above) sometime…

The intruders get trapped in bubbles and burst into stars. Hey, believe it or not, this is making more sense than “The Company of Wolves!”

Florence and Michael share a boat (oh, yeah!), and the fairy tells the mortal that all the flowers heard Michael when he played his oboe on a cliff, and that music is awesome. Then, the ice-breaker. This happens so suddenly!

Florence: “Michael?”
Michael: “Yes, Florence?”
Florence: “Michael, I… I think I love you.”
Michael: “I love you, too, Florence.”
Florence: “Then let us go together to the Crystal Waters, where I will make you one of us.”


“ONE OF US! ONE OF US! GOOBLE GOBBBLE! GOOBLE GOBBLE!”

Is this the end of the movie? The music is intensifying, the screen is fading… nope, next scene! Michael is now a fairy boy! Screw you, mortality! Bwahahaha! Now forming one, the two fairies dance together in the air.

All right, the music is concluding, and this has the potential to being an ending. Sure, it has to be the ending. No? Uh, okay.

Something’s wrong with the clouds. They’re gloomy and dark, which signals the end of Flower Season, and Maleficent sends out her frost. Well, not Maleficent, but the brambles arrive. This looks like a good time to call Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong. Of all things to forget to mention, Florence, it had to be this piece of info, huh? As if brambles weren’t enough, bugs arrive and tear the crap out of everything. What the heck? If it’s this dangerous every year, how is Florence still living?

Treble comes back, assisting Michael in combating the Sour Sallies and growing flowers. Michael commands the army by conducting everything with the wand, as a conductor uses a baton. The flowers produce searchlights that incinerate the bugs as soon as they make contact, and Treble calls forth a note army. Then there are the projectiles! After a victorious battle, Treble and his comrades depart.

The narrator jumps in and informs us that although Michael stopped that particular invasion, the nightmare was not over. Snaps! A big, gooey and tentacle’d thing slithers to Flowerland, which promptly grabs fairies and eats them. Whoa! Florence is grabbed, but begs Michael to save himself; if he uses the wand one more, he’ll apparently never come back to Flowerland.

If only Trebled stayed around a little longer, maybe he would have been of some assistance. Rotten timing, I say.

Michael sacrifices himself and blows up the monster. Unfortunately, this propels him back to the human world, much to the dismay of Florence. Back as a human, Michael wakes up in the greenhouse, and a vision plays where a lifeless Michael is buried in flower petals. Huh?! Don’t fade, music! What is this? Please, for once tell me this isn’t the end! This isn’t conclusive!

Whew! It isn’t. Michael stirs and wakes up on the floor of the greenhouse. He recognizes what has happened, and frets over being separated by Florence. Dr. Who had it worse than this, because the potted plant once again glows, and Florence materializes. Only to tell him that she came one last time to see him. Oh, okay. So she’ll go back to Flowerland after this final kiss. Wait, she can’t go back because the wand is gone. Okay. So she can stay here with Michael in the human world, and live happily ever after? No? You chose to spend your last moments with Michael, and you’re gonna die in a few minutes when the sun rises?

Gosh, that was very thoughtful!

Florence would rather spend her final moments to thank her love for saving Flowerland, professing her love, and singing a decidedly romantic song. Florence’s dying wish is for Michael to play the oboe, and she’ll be happy while listening to the music, wherever she’ll be. Michael hunches over the potted plant, Florence’s grave, and sobs. The screen dissolves with narration.

Well, that was a bittersweet movie. I guess I—Next scene. Man, this movie is one tease after another! I’ll be shocked when I see the credits roll for real! Back at the music school, Michael convinces Mr. Lownote to give him one more chance. Michael obviously plays much better than before, and actually becomes the front man of the orchestra. That’s kinda unfair to the students who actually put their minds into music the whole time and were never late, unlike Michael, but oh, well.

Michael also takes up conducting, and every time he plays the oboe or conducts an orchestra, he travels back to Flowerland. But Florence isn’t there, because she’s as dead as Norrington. Dang! The credits roll (no, really!) over flower petals and scenes of Michael and Florence, and that’s that.

Despite all my jokes and wisecracks, this movie is not bad at all. In fact, I rather enjoyed it, but that’s mostly because I’m a huge fan of “Fantasia.” “Fantasia” is one of my favorite movies of all time, so I was interested to see an anime with a similar concept. Except “A Journey Through F[lower]land” deviates from “Fantasia” the most with its story. While “Fantasia” did not have a singular story, “Fairyland” can be best summed up as “‘Fantasia’ with a plot.” However you look at it, it is obvious that Sanrio was aware of “Fantasia” while they made this film.

I have two criticisms. The first is more obvious: the way this movie is presented, it looks like it will end about four times before it actually does. I suppose this isn’t really a fault, but it did make me wonder when the movie would end, which isn’t exactly a good thing for a movie. My second criticism is that some of the dubbing is weak. I actually didn’t mind Florence too much; my interpretation is that she’s supposed to be sultry yet innocent, and her English voice accomplished that (even if she exclaimed more than Alice). Michael is decent, although his cries at the end of the movie are unconvincing. “Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!” That’s how he cries. Seriously. Lownote and Laura are just fine, although they are such minor characters that they didn’t really need to be standouts. Treble is the worst offender: his voice can get annoying fairly quickly. At least he’s not as major of a character as I thought he was going to be.

Otherwise, this film is easy to watch. The animation, while not as creative and detailed as Disney’s timeless “Fantasia,” boasts good character animation, atmospheric backgrounds, and splendid animation effects. Since this was before computer animation really was commonplace in animation, a lot of the tricks in this film were done by hand. I enjoy that. Of course, the one rotoscoped effect is a bit goofy, but it was made in the 80’s after all.

While Florence's song is decent but forgettable, the rest of the music is great. Of course, it largely consists of classical music, so there you go.

I recommend checking this film out for viewing on YouTube. If you can find it for very cheap at a local video store, you can get that. I wouldn’t recommend paying an arm and a leg for a copy of this, but if you have the time and the way of watching this film, you could do a lot worse.

*** out of ****

Special thanks to THIS fansite for the pictures!