From development, to writing, to direction, and beyond, this eighth full-length feature of the franchise made an interesting choice. I see no problem whatsoever with adapting an episode from the manga, long and full as it is of tales ripe for translation into another medium. However, the doing here is rather inelegant as within minutes we're hastily introduced to two new supporting characters who will (supposedly) be integral to this one story: flashback, present day, flashback, then back to the present and the active narrative. We're effectively tossed headlong into the plot with exposition that disjointedly conveys necessary information that serves as foundation, and I have to think that it would have taken very little - additional scenes of a few minutes at most, rewriting, re-editing these early minutes - to provide a more cogent and lucid introduction to this one saga. Wherever the responsibility lies between the producers, writer Kamisaka Hirohiko, and director Imamura Takahiro, the incidence is notable and unfortunate, and not the best start for 'The desert princess and the pirates: Adventure in Alabasta' as this seem geared specifically for those who are already familiar with the manga or anime.
Would that the issues with this 'One Piece' film ended at the beginning. There's also the matter of a primary character, who has already been part of the Straw Hat Pirates in prior theatrical releases, being depicted at an earlier point in the manga when they were not. Granted, it's not as if the movies are directly tied to each other in a sequential order, and we could perhaps consider this in some measure as a partial treatment of the character's backstory. Even so, this matter was also easily solvable by more freely adapting the narrative. Moreover, in a plot of the Straw Hats encountering three parties who are at odds, with one manipulating the other two, and further including a character who can freely alter their appearance, I believe the feature sometimes struggles to identify the parties at hand, or where loyalties lie. Even if we generously suppose that the dialogue has been mangled in translation for subtitles, the fundamental scene writing is just as shoddy about communicating the course of events. And it's not just about the writing, for in what I assume to have been the choices of director Imamura in shaping the writing to his vision for the animation, the manner in which some particular shots or scenes present is terribly confusing as they are so inadequate in terms of imparting the intended idea.
Truthfully, I think this is a rare instance in which the animation itself is at fault. I don't mean to suggest that the artists at Toei turned in poor work, because that's absolutely not the case; as is routinely the case, the visual experience is characterized by terrific detail and texture, gorgeous backgrounds and environments, vibrant designs for characters and other active elements, fluid movement and action, and so on. Yet the creative decisions that guided those artists, that dictated how a shot or scene should appear, leads to some outright misuse of animation. And as much as I blame Kamisaka and Imamura for the failures of this picture, editor Goto Masahiro is culpable as least as much if not more. The narrative flow is all over the place, incohesive and almost incoherent, as the presentation flits heedlessly between multiple concurrent scenes. Violent action sequences and dramatic moments of critical importance are recklessly chopped up, obliterating their would-be potency and further complicating the the horribly weak plot development that stems from the troubled writing and direction. It seems time and time again that characters and even the smallest of minutiae come and go from out of nowhere, and beats transpire in a manner just as slipshod. The end result is that a tale which should be sober and thrilling, with high stakes and great risk for our heroes, is instead entirely unable to make any of it meaningful and impactful for us. There's barely any sense of basic narrative structure here. What happened?
I read an outside synopsis of the plot and I see a story that should have been compelling and absorbing as Luffy and his nakama are pushed to their limits. That is not the story we get in 'The desert princess and the pirates: Adventure in Alabasta.' There's barely a story at all as the writing, direction, animation, and editing butcher it, which is all the more astonishing since, again, the saga on hand is discretely adapting a plot from the manga. Sincerely, what happened here? I can only assume that the production was rushed, or that individuals with control over the outcome but without a creative bone in their body (i.e., suits in the executive suite) pushed for certain choices. For as excellent as all the previous 'One Piece' films were, this one is a mess, and almost unwatchable. I see the tremendous potential that it bore, but from start to finish that potential is almost completely squandered. Accentuating the point: amidst the exposition in the earliest scenes, we see the Straw Hats undertake preparations to counter a dangerous foe - but those preparations never, ever come into play as this is written, nor addressed again, except in the most meaningless fashion. The very notion was a waste, and frankly, so is the movie as a whole. Sloppy and flailing in pretty much every way that matters most, a mere ninety minutes feel far, far longer than they are, and the sad truth is that this 2007 feature was mismanaged from top to bottom. Where other films of the franchise are outstanding, this one was just a mistake, and I rather recommend you avoid it altogether.
