The surrounding hints of death and the afterlife, the influence (to my eye) of Hayao Miyazaki (Auntie Whispers is so reminiscent of Spirited Away, not to mention the dog that swallowed the turtle), the hilariously lovable Greg, the great characters (kleptomaniac horse!)...
Was a pleasure to have found this series.
Hear, hear.
I too, adore this miniseries. After watching it I had a sudden Miyazaki craving. So after having watched Pompoko, Spirited Away and The Cat Returns I realized Miyazaki surely was a great influence. Glad someone else picked up on it as well.
Yes, it was quite reminiscnet of Chihiro and it was a quite lovely cartoon.
Next stop: Adventure Time with Finn & Jake.
Have you seen that already? It's from the same author
The ongoing saga of the intrepid last-child-of-man and his more-than-canine brother-in-arms in the post-magically-apocalyptic afterworld of Ooo?
I may have heard a murmur or two about it....
Didn't know it was from the same author... but I think the difference in scope shows. Some episodes in later seasons in Adv. Time can feel a bit distanced from the spirit of the earlier ones. But it definitely is Mathematical!
This miniseries was astounding.
It packed such an immense amount of story into such a small space, yet somehow made it work so well.
When I watched it the first time, my jaw just kept falling lower and lower in astonishment, as I had come to expect that such a degree of creative genius was utterly absent from American cartoons.
Stylistically, narratively, it was amazing. It's one of the very few things to come from American animation in a long time that leave me craving to see it again.