Adapted from the JRPG series of the same name, Netflix's English-language release of NiNoKuni aims to break the video game movie curse... and doesn't quite manage it. The film taps into the portal fantasy craze that has become a dominant fixture of manga and anime, for which the title should be a giveaway to Japanese speakers: translating literally to “the second country.”

In this case, the movie's two wannabe heroes, Yuu and Haru, find themselves thrust into a typically Eurocentric fantasy kingdom by way of extreme stress and are able to zip back to their own world via the same method. This stress is caused by their close friend and love interest, Kotona, being attacked by an otherworldly assassin. When they first arrive in this other world, their school uniforms are magically replaced by Medieval-esque clothing to blend them into their new surroundings and they later find out that they're, somehow, expert knights. Yuu, who has been using a wheelchair for most of his life, is also suddenly able to walk again. Notably absent, however, is the gravely injured Kotona. Their only clue to her whereabouts is a picture they find of the kingdom’s Princess Astrid, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Kotona.

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Anyone even slightly familiar with the idea of parallel worlds and doppelgangers will be able to guess at what this means but NiNoKuni still manages to add some surprising twists to this familiar conceit as it goes along. They also go some way towards elevating the story, which, try as it might, never fully immerses you into the fantasy as much as it does Yuu and Haru. The studio behind the film, OLM Inc., have been helming the various Pokémon series and films since 1997, and the animation in NiNoKuni is as competent and colorful as you'd expect, while never quite straying into superlative realms. Actually, the best thing to look at isn't anything that moves -- it's the finely-detailed backdrops.

The biggest problem with the film is the generic quality of its "second country," which may well be the fault of the source material rather than the filmmakers, here. Things get off to a promising start when Yuu and Haru venture into the nearest tavern upon their arrival; it's buzzing with all kinds of fairy tale creatures, including a burly, mustachioed dog-man who, unfortunately, doesn't tag along with the pair of bewildered teenagers. But, their journey doesn't take them much further than a couple of key locations, leaving what you'd expect to be a sprawling, Middle Earth-type continent feeling disappointingly localized. Of course, the reason for this is because Yuu and Haru's friendship takes center stage, which would be a fair trade-off if the escalation of tension between them felt more believable. (Also less believable is the bad guys turning into weird spider monsters -- an explicable power that appears to be fueled by sheer desperation.)

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The elephant in the room is the passing resemblance to Studio Ghibli, both in the film's character designs (Yuu might as well be Spirited Away's Haku's long-lost twin brother) and soundtrack. This is due to the director, Yoshiyuki Momose, being an animator for the famous studio (he worked on, yes -- you guessed it: Spirited Away), as well as its composer, Joe Hisaishi -- a frequent Ghibli collaborator. Hisaishi also serves as the lead composer on the Ni no Kuni game series. This resemblance will no doubt serve the film well in sticking out among Netflix's seemingly endless jungle of content for those mindlessly scrolling through it in search of a Miyazaki fix -- particularly with most of Ghibli's library on its way to the streaming service soon. However, while it makes for a pleasant, afternoon watch, NiNoKuni certainly doesn't have the staying power of an instant Ghibli classic.

NiNoKuni is streaming now on Netflix.

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