A Lovely Travel Story: "Tabisuru Nuigurumi: Traveling Daru"

Synopsis

One day, a cherished handmade stuffed toy named Daru ends up getting lost and separated from their owner at the airport. Determined to be reunited with their owner, Daru sets out on a journey around the world in search of her. Time passes and Daru continues to travel all over while their owner ages. Is there hope yet for these two to be reunited?

The Good

As a work that features traveling, the visuals and animation that was featured throughout the film presented as a great visual play for the view. The way the film took on different camera angles matched with the instrumental music really draws the viewer in, especially when it comes to the scenes showing the beauty of the skies at different times. It’s a film that has no dialogue until the end but with the visuals, it truly communicated a lot.

On another note, the story also holds an interesting aspect, mostly in how the little girl seems to age and grow throughout the film. Seeing her struggles as she develops into a designer/seamstress really helped in adding to the plot of the film.

The Bad

As a short and basically silent work, there isn’t much to be criticized with the film. It’s understandable that there wasn’t much explored with the young girl’s character seeing as the film was meant to feature’s Daru’s journey but it would have been nice to see more flashbacks than the one of her creating Daru. Other than this, it’s a personal nitpick but there were moments that seemed to take away from the flow of the film such as Daru being in a theater, it’s a tiny thing but the visual presentation could have been done better if it featured other aspects.

Conclusion

It’s a beautiful film with great sky visuals and a rather lovely story overall. As a silent film, it was expected that it would provide more a visual pleasure to draw the viewer in and it worked. There were some scenes that could have been adjusted or taken out but the way Daru’s journey was portrayed overall really gave the film a strong foundation. It could have worked out some plot points better but it’s something that you can watch to take a few minutes away from your day.

Rating: 7/10