Rating: PG-13
Running time: 122 minutes/ 2 hours, 2 minutes
Release date: August 2, 2008 (Japan)
The Sky Crawlers is a movie adaptation of a series of alternate history novels by Japanese writer MORI Hiroshi. The world is at peace. Even so, it still wants conflict. So groups of fighter pilots take to the skies to enact dogfight warfare for the public's appeasement.
And what spectacular dogfights they are. The animation crew took pictures of Ireland and Poland, where parts of the film are set, in order to draw the landscapes the pilots fly over while in the sky. In addition, each plane has a real life counterpart, almost all of which are from WWII. The Sanka Mk. B, the plane the main character uses, is based off of the Kyushu J7W1, a Japanese fighter plane from late 1945.
However, it is really outside the dogfights that the animation shines. Long, broad pans and lingering shots really showcase the detail that the animators put into their creation. The people themselves also show detail and look incredibly realistic, even though many of the colors used are muted, which only makes those bright colors, like the blue sky, stand out.
If you'd like to watch the movie, you can see it at Hulu (Japanese with English subtitles) here. Also, there's currently a video game out for the Wii, called Innocent Aces, which is made by the same team that did the Ace Combat series.
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