Michael Daly The Nemeclous Crusade is unlike anything else in science fantasy. Combining superior CGI visuals with the spirit of 1930s sci-fi magazines, it combines to keep the viewer interested and then some as it proceeds through its world of the sky. The story involves Joshua, a boy who becomes a warrior for a sky-based civilization that is battling a gigantic sky-ship that resembles both a whale and a shark. Joshua's relationship with his mentor and with a girl who lands on their sky-ship and assists in the battle with the whale/shark sky-ship becomes a focal point of the story, told throughout with the feel of a chapter of a biography. The film succeeds in making Joshua a fascinating individual and compels the viewer to see his struggles with an intensity that caught me by surprise the more I watched the film.The surreality of this world of the sky easily draws the viewer in and keeps the viewer fascinated to the end, making for a sleeper science-fantasy triumph.

telex1-1 In today's computer animation age this film is at the bottom of the barrel. The animation is jerky,lip syncing is non existent and the overall look of the film is amateurish. However I've always had a soft spot for small studios that attempt big things. There no doubt that with companies like Pixar,Dreamworks and Blue Sky studios film like this are a joke. Nueart Pictures tried to produce a science fantasy about a world of floating land masses,where no gravity exist, and dirigible are the main means of transport. I love computer animation yet with the exception of Pixar studios's The Incredibles, all the big studios are making are comedies with talking animals. And only small animation houses (mostly European and Japanese) are attempting to use this medium for more mature audience. The story is about a boy (Joshua) who dreamed of the flying the winds. This takes him on an adventure against a mechanical whale that has been terrorizing the skies. The pace is set through narration by an older Joshua via The Wonder Years TV series. The story shares bits of Moby Dick and Frankenstein. There is some violence and death so this isn't intended for young children. And that's why I'm giving it five stars out of ten. It would have been more if they had polished the story more. However they did avoid the easy path of creating some flying talking animals, a princess and have an unlikely nerdy hero learning a life lessons while saving the day. It is my hope that one of the major studios will attempt in the near future to give science fantasy genre a try without cartoon-like traits. May I suggest Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. Which I recommend before looking at this valiant attempt but utter failure.

jendoer I can't understand the comments that give praise to the animation here. Maybe if this film had been produced in the 70's - and was being evaluated in terms of its peers at that time - the praise might make sense. But the expressionless faces and absolutely grotesque grimaces that were supposed to represent smiles were so poorly done I thought I was watching a junior high school media arts production. Aside from the graphics, the bad plot line, and the completely wacky scene transitions, the dialog is another big disappointment. Its no wonder these people were at war - listening to some of these characters would unleash hostility in any society. This is a candidate for CGI hall of shame...

imdb-4196 I would have to classify this as one of the least enjoyable movies I've ever watched. There were many wonderful ideas, including imaginative locations and vehicles, and the basic premise of the story had merit, but the execution seemed *miles* off target.Firstly, the main character looks to me like a little boy, somewhere between 3 and 8 years of age. The opening scenes find him running and playing, with suitable childish glee. I was both startled and disappointed, then, when he began laughing with the voice of a young teenager. The voice felt utterly wrong for the character - like sci-fi scenes where a woman speaks with a man's deep voice. We are also supposed to accept that a considerable amount of time passes over the course of the film, but his character never looks or sounds any older. His childish appearance is made all the more disturbing by the fact that he is given a love interest (whom we are supposed to like, but whom I found to be repulsively creepy).One of the biggest overall problems with the film, however, is pacing. Things just don't happen at a natural tempo. This is true both in the bigger scope of the story, as well as within the context of particular scenes or camera shots.A prime example of this would be the many scenes which simply showed two characters doing something and laughing. The purpose of such scenes is to establish that the characters are bonding, and having a good time together. This could be accomplished in about 5 to 10 seconds. Unfortunately for the viewer, these scenes are drawn out to a minute or two in length. At the end of the scene, the characters are still in the some location, doing the same thing, and nothing new has been presented. This extra time does nothing to advance the plot, and very quickly becomes tiresome.Not only is this laughter hard to justify from a story-telling standpoint, it's also hard to accept it as believable. When people are enjoying an activity, the normal human response is not to laugh, but to smile. People only laugh for extended periods (without anything funny happening) when they are exceptionally tired or drunk, and the laughter in the film didn't seem to be caused by either of these.In many of the shots, the animation was also just *slightly* too slow to feel natural. Other shots were clearly intended to be slow-motion, but these lost much of their effect and believability, because motion blur wasn't added.It is also worth mentioning that a substantial portion of the dialog in the film consisted of single words. The characters showed a tendency to say things like "oh" "ah" and "ooh", in response to their environment, to a degree which was excessive, annoying, and rather silly. They also liked to answer questions with single word answers, whenever possible.If I'd seen the movie more recently, I'm sure I could quickly double the length of these comments. Since it was a few months ago, however, (and I don't plan to watch it ever again,) I shall conclude my ramblings with the recommendation that you go and watch this, as a spectacular example of how *not* to make a CG film.