I have to say that when I went to the Gene Siskel Film Center to see this, I was quite bored at the start of the movie, but this movie had whipped me pretty hard awake with how engaging it eventually got. The animation style isn't necessarily unique, but is still very relevant to the strange utopian society of the 1940s and is a fabulous treat. The characters are hilarious or dark when you experience them, and remain fascinating even after some of them play their one role. I am especially fond of Darwin for eventually possessing the ability of "kittenvincibility", one of the best improvised words I have seen in an animated film. The story concept is among the most imaginative I have seen, though in execution there is one cliché moment that the story didn't seem to recover from, similar to what reviewers of Howl's Moving Castle noticed. Despite the flaws in the story, this is regardless a must-see film for anyone who has a taste in animation or science fiction, with its emotion and humor being loaded with brass. (I would recommend the English subtitled version rather than the dub.)
