This effort to combine Japanese and American animation notoriously went through nearly a decade of development hell. Gary Kurtz was an original producer, who got Ray Bradbury to draft a screenplay. Both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata were going to direct at different points in time, but neither really liked Bradbury's screenplay and both left. (Ideas that were proposed for this film ended up as several later Studio Ghibli films) Brad Bird, Osamu Dezaki and Moebius were all involved at some point. The final film is co-written by Chris Columbus, has songs by the Sherman brothers and was co-directed by folks best known for their work on television.
Was it worth all this effort? No, not really. I really can't stand Columbus and this feels like his work. The characters are bland and uninteresting. The plot is uninteresting. This is a project that had input from a lot of people with pretty wild imaginations, and apart from some really interesting visual ideas, not much made the finished film.
Was it worth all this effort? No, not really. I really can't stand Columbus and this feels like his work. The characters are bland and uninteresting. The plot is uninteresting. This is a project that had input from a lot of people with pretty wild imaginations, and apart from some really interesting visual ideas, not much made the finished film.