Originally a manga (Japanese comic), this property was filmed in 1988 as an anime (traditional cartoon), and has now been upgraded in a technically innovative remake which mixes impressive CG backgrounds with characters who look at best like 3-D versions of old-fashioned cartoons and at worse rotoscoped (live-action ‘cartoonised’ by tracing over the image).
The characters might physically appear rounded, but are otherwise paper-thin, and the amazing scenes keep stopping dead for hard-to-follow, overly earnest conversations about why things are so rotten in the world and what has to be done about it.