Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Irishchatter I even liked the animals who visited Gauche and made him play songs for them. It's very good to see an anime like this with such great art and that is very uplifting. Bravo to all involved!

Jose Cruz Isao Takahata is one of the greatest directors of all time, either in animation of live action, and here we are shown one of his early pre- Ghibli films. The quality of the artwork and animation is sub-par compared to his later films (such as Grave of the Fireflies, which he made only six years after this film but it feels like it was made with ten times the budget and more advanced technology). The soundtrack is marvelous as it consists of Beethoven's 6th symphony and there is a very interesting cello solo later in the film.Overall, I found this film better than Pom Poko and Yamadas but not as good as Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday, which I consider his two masterpieces.

neenahhh I was expecting to connect emotionally with this film, since I found that I'm a sucker for movies/TV shows/commercials that have big "everything-changes-for-the-better-and-you-prove-everyone-else-wrong" scenes. I mean, have you seen that inspiring Pantene commercial? Unfortunately, "Goshu the Cellist" didn't do that for me.I felt like this movie lacked character development. All that was shown were different animals coming to Goshu's house each night and requesting him to play the cello for them over and over again. I felt like there was no development in Goshu's part. His playing seemed all right in the beginning. There were no loud pauses or screeches or anything that showed that Goshu needed to improve. It was the same until the very end. Maybe Goshu's personal development was only caught by people with a more professional musical ear.While watching this, I got reminded of "Bambi", "A Christmas Carol" and "Aesop's Fables". Those are all great works, so I didn't understand why "Goshu the Cellist" didn't make me feel anything throughout the whole movie, even until the very end. This film was made for children, seeing as it is a fairytale, though a few people who are older, may find some kind of enjoyment in it, I guess. Not for me, though.Viewed on: May 2, 2011

David Feldman Art with a didactic agenda often fails by succeeding - once we learn the message, we lose interest in the messenger. Fortunately, the animal night spirits here disguise their lessons *for* Goshu as requests for favors *from* Goshu. They never explain themselves. Even for the viewer who gets the point before Goshu, the film will deserve at least a second viewing to appreciate the teacher's cunning.Goshu begins the film as a *mediocre* professional cellist (so his playing may already sound pretty good to a child beginner!). He already shows dedication to practicing; the film carries a message more subtle than the mere value of hard work.The spirits aim to teach the higher values of music. Indeed it takes a pretty good ear, at first, even to hear the difference they make. Sufficient ambiguity surrounds their didactic message that no one should find the film heavy handed. As subtle as its message about music itself, the movie really speaks to the art of teaching (hence didactic of the second order!).I suspect that a Japanese viewer will immediately understand the animals as (potentially menacing) supernatural spirits (rather like denizens of dreams), and thus understand Goshu's initial violent hostility to his actually friendly visitors. If one misreads the visitors as mere (fantasy) animals, Goshu's reactions to them just seem monstrous. In other words Disney would expect you to suspend disbelief in the presence of a talking cat (not to mention a person who so quickly finds it natural to talk to a talking cat), but Goshu knows cats don't talk, though spirits, manifestations of our inner demons, very well may. A young Western child watching this film might find it useful or even comforting to have this explained in advance!