One Piece Film: Red review

ONE PIECE FILM: RED: 

LATEST FILM BASED ON BELOVED ANIME AND MANGA SERIES IS A SURPRISINGLY EFFECTIVE EMOTIONAL ROLLER-COASTER! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

CRUNCHYROLL

Uta, Monkey D. Luffy, and Shanks in One Piece Film: Red

 

            Spoiler alert! No, this is not a crossover with One Piece and the Retired Extremely Dangerous, disappointing I know. The Straw Hat Pirates are back in One Piece Film: Red, the latest film based on the popular One Piece anime and manga series. 

            I should make this perfectly clear before we dive into the review, I am not a One Piece expert, I’ve seen random episodes of the series before whenever it happened to be on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block and read a few stories featured in Shonen Jump, but that’s about it. Although, I have a basic idea of the premise, a rubbery pirate named Luffy (Who is basically what you’d get if Mr. Bean, Jim Carrey, and Mr. Fantastic had a secret lovechild!) and his crew/friends go on all kinds of swashbuckling adventures and encounter a bizarre cast of characters along the way. 

            From what I’ve seen the anime was fine, it just didn’t grab me nearly as much as the Dragon Ball franchise, Cowboy Bebop, and most recently, Demon Slayer. Then, this movie comes along after the success of previous One Piece films like 2012’s One Piece Film: Z, 2016’s One Piece Film: Gold, and 2019’s One Piece: Stampede. 

            I’ve never seen any of the earlier films before, nor have I seen any episodes of the series since at least the mid-late 2000s. So, I’m going into this with only my basic knowledge of the source material, other critic reviews, and that it was requested by friends on social media. 

            These are always exciting reviews to do because I’m a total newbie here and going into this with no expectations. Look at that, One Piece Film: Red is a really solid anime feature and apparently, it isn’t canon, so you don’t have to be a purist on the lore to enjoy this one. 

             The film follows Monkey D. Luffy (voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard-Fullmetal Alchemist, Fairy Tail, My Hero Academia) and the Straw Hat Pirates traveling to an island to attend a concert by world-famous singer, Uta (voiced by Amanda Lee/AmaLee-Zombie Land Saga, Attack on Titan, Pokémon Evolutions). It turns out Uta was a childhood friend of Luffy’s and the daughter of swordsman and pirate “Red Haired” Shanks of the Red Hair Pirates who left piracy behind to pursue a career in singing, thus resulting in her becoming the mega-star she is now. 

            Uta aspires to use her musical talents to bring peace to a supposedly dying world, but beneath her good intentions lies something dark that could bring an end to both pirates and the world as we know it. Luffy will need to overcome Uta’s destructive singing (A songstress villain with a literally powerful singing voice…didn’t I see one of those on Danny Phantom?) and reality-altering powers, stop her from whatever she’s planning, and hopefully get his old friend back before time runs out. 

            The film also features the voices of Brandon Potter (Appleseed XIII, Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, My Hero Academia) as Shanks, Christopher Sabat (Dragonball franchise, Yu-Yu Hakusho, My Hero Academia) as Roronoa Zoro, Luci Christian (Full Metal Panic, My Hero Academia, Fruits Basket (2019)) as Nami, Sonny Strait (Dragonballfranchise, Psycho-Pass, Ace Attorney) as Usopp, Eric Vale (Dragonball franchise, Fairy Tail, Tokyo Ghoul) as Sanji, Brina Palencia (Fullmetal Alchemist, Black Butler, Dragonball franchise) as Tony Tony Chopper, Stephanie Young (Soul Eater, .hack//Quantum, My Hero Academia) as Nico Robin, Patrick Seitz (Eureka Seven, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter) as Franky, Ian Sinclair (Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, Dragonball Super) as Brook, and Japanese singer, Ado as Uta’s singing voice. 

            Overall, One Piece Film: Red will likely satisfy longtime fans of the source material, but its powerful melody, stellar animation, and emotional weight may just be enough for newcomers to fall under its spell. Again, this is coming from someone who hasn’t seen much One Piece and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. 

            I knew the film was working for me when characters would say things like “Sing-Sing Fruit” and “Sing-Sing World” with 100% seriousness and not having it sound unintentionally hilarious. Perhaps, I snickered at their names at first, but by the climax I was so engrossed in the characters and their dilemmas that I no longer acknowledged how silly those names sounded. 

            The film kind of does the Dragon Ball Super: Broly thing where many of the supporting characters are pushed off to the side and focuses more on the protagonists, that being Luffy and Uta, which in my opinion is where the movie is at its strongest. Uta is one of the most interesting villains/antagonists in film I’ve seen all year, she isn’t necessarily evil as her plan is with good intentions to create a world with only happiness and peace (I mean, who wouldn’t want that?), but her methods are a little out there, when her backstory is told thus and discover the reason behind her plan, it’s genuinely heartbreaking. 

            I enjoy the chemistry Luffy and Uta have in the film as they share a lot of screen-time together, whether it’s through flashbacks of them as children, one trying to talk the other out of what they’re doing, or just spending a good amount of time in the climax fighting each other, good stuff. I also like the arc Uta goes through during the film as a potentially redeemable antagonist that does lead to a satisfying payoff, never thought I’d say this, but One Piecesucceeds where Halloween Ends failed. 

            The animation is gorgeous, especially during Uta’s musical numbers which are a psychedelic visual treat whenever they’re on (Oh, and the songs during them are pretty damn good too!). I’m also glad that the film’s animation retains its hand-drawn roots while only using CGI during various sequences unlike Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (Which is a movie I did like but wasn’t a big fan of it being only CGI!), particularly during the song segments and exhilarating action scenes. 

            I also found the character designs to be very appealing (And I’m talking about the One Piece franchise in general here!), I always loved how zany and cartoony many of these characters are in both appearance and personality. Sort of like a hybrid of anime and slapstick cartoon animation. 

            I can’t say One Piece Film: Red is one of the greatest anime films ever made, it’s nowhere near the same level of quality as something like Studio Ghibli, Akira, Your Name, or any of the recent Dragon Ball movies. But if you’re a fan of the One Piece franchise or just the least bit curious about this film, I’d say it’s definitely worth checking out on the big screen.