Today’s quick review: Dragon Quest: Your Story. The mighty warrior Pankraz (Parker Simmons) and his son Luca (Yuri Lowenthal) are on a quest to rescue Luca’s mother Mada (Cissy Jones) from the sorcerer Ladja (Jason Marnocha), who plans to use her power to summon a great evil. But when Ladja kills Pankraz and takes Luca prisoner, it is up to the boy to escape, rescue his mother, and save the world.
Dragon Quest: Your Story is a Japanese animated fantasy adventure. The movie is a love letter to the Dragon Quest video game franchise. It is set in a lavish CGI interpretation of the game world that’s filled with colorful characters, cartoonish monsters, and elaborate landscapes. Against this backdrop, Your Story tells a fun and adventurous story that’s loaded with humor. However, some of its storytelling decisions make the movie hit-or-miss.
Your Story’s most notable feature is its passion. Everything from the setting to the art to the characters shows a great love for role-playing games as a whole and Dragon Quest in particular. The film’s distinct visual style, bouncy action, and clever use of game mechanics make it a treat to watch, and it strikes a nice balance between humor and drama. It also works well as an adaptation, paying homage to the source material without being too literal.
Unfortunately, Your Story has two major flaws that keep it from living up to its full potential. The first is its unusual story structure. Your Story has a lot of ground to cover, and it has to race to fit everything in. Montages and time skips help the movie get its pieces into place, but the story still feels rushed and disconnected. The second flaw is more pointed: an ambitious ending that gambles everything on one final twist.
Dragon Quest: Your Story is a great pick when you’re in the mood for a lively, cartoonish adventure that has plenty of passion. Its excellent art and fun sense of humor manage to put a unique spin on a classic genre, and its story is a joy to experience, even if it pacing is a little rough. But the catch is that Your Story ends in a very different way than it begins, making it a risky choice even for viewers who are interested.
For an animated adventure done in a semi-realistic style, try The Adventures of Tintin. For a CGI-animated video game adaptation with an even greater emphasis on action, try Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. For a safer anime movie based on a role-playing game, try NiNoKuni. For a fun, nostalgic adventure with an even more comedic bent, try The Lego Movie.
6.5 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 to 7.5 for a highly creative romp with some polarizing decisions.