Review: Nocturna (2007)

A boy discovers the strange world of the nightly city and has to overcome his fear of the dark.

The story is good if not too original but this movie is astonishingly beautiful, especially the backgrounds/matte paintings (and the sound design is really good too). Not sure about the character design but I am hard to please in that regard anyway. And I guess it’s a good thing that everybody isn’t as thin as a stick for a change.

The obvious problem with Nocturna is the depiction of female characters. There aren’t any. When I saw the trailer I somehow thought that the Cat Herder was a woman, just imagine: A strong BBW cat-like woman. But alas, he’s a guy. The very few minor (there aren’t any major) female characters – telephone ladies, hair-stylists, stars (yeah, seriously) – are as feminine, cliched and stuck in backward roles as they get. No point for you, Nocturna (obviously no PoC in fairytale land, either).

And I know that this is really over-interpreting it but I think it’s kind of scary having all these creatures who’s only purpose in life seems to be working hard to make humans (only children?) having a good night’s sleep. I hope they at least get paid well.

Nevertheless, it is an entertaining watch and very pleasing to the eye.