A sweet and simple episodic tale of a boy who discovers musical inspiration through nature. Pretty soon, we, too, begin to hear the cuckoo bird's underrated song and begin to see the animal-shaped clouds & trees in the background as the film progresses. Regardless of who its audience is, Gauche the Cellist offers some valuable lessons in perspective. Pre-Ghibli Takahata forming his prime.

Isao Takahata's film, based on a Kenji Miyazawa story, about a cellist who is taught by animals to play better. It's a beautiful movie that is a nice marriage of sound and music. Coming from one of the founders of Studio Ghibli the style of animation is a close to but not a duplicate of the Ghibli house style. Emotionally the film seemed a bit distant to me. I could enjoy what I was seeing but at the same time I didn't feel as emotionally connected to what was going on. Normally with Takahata's films I have some form of emotional connection but this time I didn't. Its not bad, but I wanted to feel more at the end. That said this is definitely worth a look because its so beautiful its a must see

I even liked the animals who visited Gauche and made him play songs for them. It's very good to see an anime like this with such great art and that is very uplifting. Bravo to all involved!