Chimney Town: Frozen In Time

Bluesky

Pint-sized chimney sweep Lubicchi (voiced by Yuzuna Nagase) is back for a fresh adventure, which will take him far away from his home Chimney Town. Unfolding exactly a year after the first instalment, Lubicchi is still dreaming of being reunited with his magical friend Poupelle – a mysterious character who is constructed from rubbish. Writer Akihiro Nishino and director – reunited after the runaway success of the first film which was a box office smash in Japan – wisely don’t spend too much time recapping details from the original adventure. It is enough to know that Lubicchi misses his friend dearly, so that when a rat runs off with a treasured bracelet that reminds him of Poupelle, he gives chase.

This early scene allows Yûsuke Hirota to show off his inventive side as the pair career headlong through Chimney Town leaving slapstick mayhem in their wake. The director’s intricate designs mix CGI and traditional hand drawn animation and his action is full of the sort of cute little asides that fans of the likes of Sylvain Chomet will enjoy – the tap of a toe on the floor to make sure a shoe is on properly here, a cat reaching for fish there. An unexpected dip in a fountain, however, leads him to a mysterious realm known as the Millennium Fortress, where Lubicchi finds himself being guided by a sardonic talking cat he names Fluff (Megumi). She’s a clock courier in a realm where timepieces each represent a human life. This fairy tale realm is crammed with lovely detail, including rats who, rather like Bagpuss’ organ mice, appear to be largely running the show under the watchful gaze of their queen, Hora (Tsuchiya Anna). The sound design really comes into its own with the rodents, who have a delightful squeak as they scurry about

Hora promises she’ll help Lubicchi return home if he can restart the enormous clock that hangs over the Fortress, which in fine fairy tale tradition, is stuck at a minute to midnight. Here Nishino and Hirota introduce a second tale, focusing on an unexpected romance between the clocktower’s keeper Gus (Yoshihara Mitsuo) and singer Nagi (Koshiba Fuka), who has a secret of her own. The animation is a constant delight even if the balance between the stories is uneven. Younger audiences may find themselves feeling bored as Nagi strikes up a tune and the burgeoning romance between her and Gus – with its shades of Belle and the Beast – is less fun, and decidedly drippy, when compared with Lubicchi’s adventures.

In general, the character and story feels as though they owe at least some debt to Lewis Carroll. Fluff has shades of the wise Cheshire Cat, even if she never smiles, and twin inventor brothers who turn up at just the right moment are a Tweedledum and Tweedledee for the modern age.

The idea of enduring friendship no matter what is a nice one, and if it is likely to go over the heads of younger audience members, especially if they haven’t seen Poupelle Of Chimney Town, they’re still likely to be captivated by the creative invention and strong vein of comedy. The happily ever after ending ties things up neatly, if rather too sweetly given the film’s melancholic underpinning.

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