You are Umasou or Omae Umasou da na is a Japanse anime film
directed by Masaya Fujimori (the same director of many Doreamon films, some of
the Inuyasha films and even the first Pokemon film). If I were to describe the film briefly I would say it is the beautiful love child of America's "Land Before Time" film series and Yumi Unita's "Usagi Drop." This movie is a great film and I highly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in its plot, those who love dinosaurs, or any casual anime or film viewer. Let me break down this film as to why it's so great. I intend to talk about key points of the plot so be aware: minor spoiler alert. That being said, let's bite right into it.
The first thing I'd like to point out about this film is that it was intended for a children audience. Bearing that in mind, it's almost laughable to think that this film really is directed towards kids with its deeper meaning and mild violent themes throughout the film. Anyways, let's talk a bit about the plot.
The protagonist of the film is a young tyrannosaurus rex named Heart who is raised by a Maiasaura who stumbles across an egg floating down a river one day. Heart grows up with his brother Light (also a Maiasaura/ a plant eater) and their mother eating berries and leaves in order to prevent Heart from becoming a meat eater.
Heart and Light's mother definitely deserves the bloody "Mother of the Year Award," as it is implied in the first portion of the film that the mom is exiled by the Maiasaura herd she was originally a part of for deciding to love and raise a "Big Jaw." She allows herself to be an outcast and shunned by her fellow Maiasura in order to live a peaceful existence, loving a child who is not even her own. While Heart's Mother truly loves him despite being a meat eater and tries her best to raise him as a plant eater, Heart's life takes a big 180 when he witnesses a triceratops being eaten by a pack of T-rexes. It is here that he realizes the true nature of what he really is and decides to run away from his brother and mother (in fear that he may eat them some day) while raising himself and eating meat.
The film then does a time skip a few years into the future when Heart is now older and has "trained his body to become strong, especially his weak hands." Heart grows up to be the strongest predator he can and fully embraces what it means to be at the top of the food chain.
However, after living a few years as an alpha predator, Heart's life takes another major turn when he comes across an egg that hatches into a baby ankylosaurus that believes Heart to be his father. After deciding not to eat the baby, Heart falls to the cute baby boy's charm and names him Umasou (the Japanese word for delicious). I have to say, the interaction between Heart and Umasou is pretty damn brilliant. It's extremely believable and heartfelt when you witness Heart's awkward dialogue with his "new son" as he clearly has no idea how to raise a child or how to be a father. That being said, some of the most touching moments occur at this point of the film in how Heart struggles to ultimately decide if a meat eater such as himself should really raise a plant eater just as his mother once tried. It's really heart wrenching stuff and you'll find yourself rooting for Heart as the film progresses.
This film is a lovable gem that not only is entertaining (no seriously, it's not just an emotional ride it also has really cool fight scenes. Heart knows Kung-fu and it's awesome!) but bears a deeper message that audiences can really relate to. The film's portrayal of different species of dinosaur raising other dinosaurs really hits home with those who have been adopted and may feel like they too were out of place in some way growing up. The film also seems to bear the message that no matter what the color of our skin is or what racial background we may come from, love can always be found amongst people of every walk of life. This is heavily seen in the romantic dialogue between Heart and his female friend Pero Pero who is an Elasmosaurus who lives in the sea. It's great stuff and really goes to show the amount of love and thought that went into the creation of this story in which our characters albeit dinosaurs, are actually really relatable.
The last point I'd like to make about this film is the music. In many cases of American animated films created for children (such as the Land Before Time film series), the creators tend to feel the need to saturate their films with really lame tunes throughout the film. That's fine and dandy and all as kids do love catchy songs, but sometimes it tends to get annoying. It's really lame when you are presenting your viewer with a story and you're slowly building up your plot only for it to be randomly interrupted with your characters suddenly bursting out into song about the situation at hand. We understand the character's feeling and circumstances, you don''t have to have them sing about it to emphasize the point. Exhibit A here is a good example of what I'm talking about... Now that I got that out of my system.... Umasou does not annoy it's viewers with this style of music implementation. There are really only two major songs that play in the film and they are sung by hired artists and not sung by the film's characters. These songs are also not annoying in the slightest and serve as nice backgrounds to show progressions of time in the film. Good job Japan!
Conclusion: I give this film a 8.5/10 and highly recommend it to everyone. The film bears a timeless and deep message of love while spouting excellent writing, great pacing, and a heart-warming story. The hand-drawn art style also stands out as really nice visuals for viewers to enjoy. Despite the film being directed towards children, it is truly a treat that holds something for any viewer (regardless of age).
-Nights Off
