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Japan · 2018
1h 30m
Director Naoko Yamada
Starring Atsumi Tanezaki, Nao Touyama, Ayaka Asai, Tomoyo Kurosawa
Genre Music, Animation, Drama
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Mizore Yoroizuka and Nozomi Kasaki are two close friends who are part of the Kitauji High School music club. Quiet and reserved Yoroizuka plays the oboe while lively and popular Kasaki plays the flute. The group has decided to play Liz and the Blue Bird, a song inspired on a fairy tale about the relationship between a girl and a bird. The musical piece puts both Mizore and Nozomi on the spotlight due to a solo part by Yoroizuka and forces the two girls to reexamine their friendship.
The story was painfully dull to me, and the entire thing (aside from the aforementioned storybook sequences) takes place in a dull looking school setting with hardly any change of scenery to break up the dreadful monotony. As far as the story goes, it’s a painfully basic story about two friends growing apart from one another. The drama here is as low-stakes as it gets.
Los Angeles Times by Charles Solomon
Liz and the Blue Bird may appeal to fans of “Sound Euphonium,” but many recent Japanese features have dealt with teen friendships and angst in more interesting ways.
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
Like in A Silent Voice, Yamada has a very keen eye for depicting adolescent malaise in visually evocative terms, and Liz and the Blue Bird could have benefited from even more flights of fancy than she allows for here.
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