It was 2012. To the Moon had become an indie hit, and had built an audience clamoring for more. The author himself was surprised, he had never expected such success from his first "real" work after all. Work had already begun on its next major story, but he wished not to be pigeonholed into a familiar formula. He also felt a fair amount of confidence in himself after getting successful, and began to work on a story personal to him.
Fast forward two(more like three!) years, and this story was released.
It was nothing like To the Moon - gone were the doctors, the patient, the memory manipulator. Instead, it was a story about a boy and his domesticated wild bird. It was told through a lens of childish imagination and wonder, and could've been a charming if rather predictable tale.
Once again though, the author made a few fundamental mistakes that ruined his premise. To begin with, he fails to keep his narrative straight, quickly flicking between fantastical scenes and more mundane shots, with little explanation for why they happen. This goes completely against the central conceit, which is that the kid inhabits a boring world and is lonely, and that the bird was thus a much needed outlet for him.
Even that wouldn't have been a problem, except the author ruins the charm of what's meant to be a sincere, simple story by getting visibly overindulgent, dragging out what would be a thirty minute narrative at best into a two hour marathon. It's incredible how little so many scenes say, and while some of them are a bit cute, it's hard to escape the feel of fatigue underlying many of them.
Lastly, the author demonstrates a rather disturbing trend of forgiving irresponsibility and selfishness on the part of the central protagonist. This was already visibly a problem in To the Moon, where Johnny got a free pass for chasing River for her autism, but in here it becomes more problematic. The boy literally causes the bird to almost fall to its own death, and yet it shows up in the end to thank him! This is perhaps the most blatant example of authorial apologizing I've ever seen, and it's something that sadly never really goes away from this franchise.
What we're left with then, is a pretty but vapid work. While To the Moon was arguably flawed and ultimately a narrative failure, it at least attempted to be interesting. This can't even really claim that, this is just a bloated, confused story that plummets straight to the ground. Only get it for (some of) its background art and music, stay far away otherwise.
Fast forward two(more like three!) years, and this story was released.
It was nothing like To the Moon - gone were the doctors, the patient, the memory manipulator. Instead, it was a story about a boy and his domesticated wild bird. It was told through a lens of childish imagination and wonder, and could've been a charming if rather predictable tale.
Once again though, the author made a few fundamental mistakes that ruined his premise. To begin with, he fails to keep his narrative straight, quickly flicking between fantastical scenes and more mundane shots, with little explanation for why they happen. This goes completely against the central conceit, which is that the kid inhabits a boring world and is lonely, and that the bird was thus a much needed outlet for him.
Even that wouldn't have been a problem, except the author ruins the charm of what's meant to be a sincere, simple story by getting visibly overindulgent, dragging out what would be a thirty minute narrative at best into a two hour marathon. It's incredible how little so many scenes say, and while some of them are a bit cute, it's hard to escape the feel of fatigue underlying many of them.
Lastly, the author demonstrates a rather disturbing trend of forgiving irresponsibility and selfishness on the part of the central protagonist. This was already visibly a problem in To the Moon, where Johnny got a free pass for chasing River for her autism, but in here it becomes more problematic. The boy literally causes the bird to almost fall to its own death, and yet it shows up in the end to thank him! This is perhaps the most blatant example of authorial apologizing I've ever seen, and it's something that sadly never really goes away from this franchise.
What we're left with then, is a pretty but vapid work. While To the Moon was arguably flawed and ultimately a narrative failure, it at least attempted to be interesting. This can't even really claim that, this is just a bloated, confused story that plummets straight to the ground. Only get it for (some of) its background art and music, stay far away otherwise.
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