Reviewed on May 30th, 2006

Visually

Palme is a gorgeous and unique project, for all that it borrows heavily from other anime films such as Akira and Nausica. There's a lot of action, but the movie's rarely in a huge hurry; like a Miyazaki film, it takes time to establish its visual details and explore its amazing world.

Audio

In a world full of strange floating sky-plants and flappy little dragonlike "crow-snakes," a botanist named Fou creates a puppet/robot from the wood of a kooloop tree, a plant with several bizarre properties: It's metallic rather than fibrous; it lives off the energy of memories, which it draws from the ground; and it grows unbelievably quickly when exposed to sunlight. As Fou warns his creation, Palme, he'll start rooting and become a tree if he stands in sunlight without oil to lubricate him.

Storyline

Fou originally created Palme to help and comfort his wife, Xian, who was ill after a lifetime of obsessing over the theoretical existence of an incredibly powerful tree-sap called crosskahla. While tending Xian and bringing her flowers, Palme was as sprightly, energetic and chattery as a young boy. But after she died, Palme went dormant for years at a time, and as the movie opens, he silently and mindlessly tears himself apart while reaching for an uncertain goal.

DVD

But in a confusing series of events, a blue-skinned woman named Koram appears and gives Palme a metallic sphere. She explains that she's from Tamas, the underground world usually just called Below. The sphere is called the Egg of Touto, and Koram wants it delivered Below. To help Palme keep the Egg alive, she gives Fou a supply of crosskahla, which he injects into Palme's system while installing the Egg in his abdomen. Men from Tamas come looking for the egg, killing Fou in the process, and Palme starts his quest addled and semi-functional, prone to distraction and obsession. But eventually he meets companions, including a warrior boy from Below and the abused daughter of an embittered dancer, and he begins to regain his sense of self and purpose. Only when he realizes what a pitiful, dysfunctional thing he is does he suddenly desire to become human.

Overall

Palme is an ambitious project, from the world-spanning script to the lovely painted animation, and sometimes it reaches a little too far, leaving clarity behind. But animation buffs are likely to be enthralled by both its surreal images and its surreal, dreamy story.

by Aidan