Animated film lacks radiance

By Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times

•	'The Golden Laws' Unrated; suitable for all ages In dubbed English with Japanese subtitles

It suffers from a mishmash of animation styles and hopelessly stilted dubbed English dialogue.

The time and place is New Atlantis, A.D. 2403. Satoru is an intelligent, thoughtful 15-year-old who one day finds a tripod-like spaceship landing on the lawn of his family's mansion. Out pops Alisa, a tiresome know-it-all who is Satoru's age. She's time-traveling from the future, the 30th century in fact, and Satoru winds up coming along for the ride.

He'd love to visit Japan in A.D. 2003, but because Alisa is inept at the controls they wind up hopscotching to Greece in B.C. 2300, Egypt in B.C. 1220, India in B.C. 600, Israel in A.D. 30 and China in A.D. 570.

They encounter a series of the world's great spiritual leaders during moments of their severest tests of faith: Hermes taking on Prometheus; Moses leading the Exodus and parting the Red Sea; the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus; and the Chinese monk Tien-tai Chi-i visited by the spirit of the Shakyamuni Buddha. In an ecumenical spirit, the film celebrates all these figures as believers in God who inspire young people to lead lives of love and courage.

Some sequences are impressive, such as the evocation of ancient Egypt. However, the overall look and feel of the film is pallid and conventional.