I have grown up with this movie. I was a pre-teen when I first saw it, and I've watched it every year or so since then, and I get something different out of it each time. One of this film's strengths (and maybe one reason why it wasn't a success) is that it targets a huge cross-section of people...there is some relatively vulgar humour (I have never heard the G dialogue so I don't know how much of the humour that removed...hopefully Botch still eats the insect in his navel!), references to parts of our culture, social commentary (the Rushers of Din would LIKE to be friendly, but their just isn't any TIME), a heroic and exciting story, some disturbing nightmarish imagery, some cute stuff for the kids, lots of self-aware humour, and -- in my opinion the biggest asset -- it's damn weird. Especially the dialogue. The voice actors are phenomenal, and they occasionally mutter their lines, which adds to the strangeness of the whole project. It's great, years later, to finally decipher one of those lines!
Technically, it's amazing. The work that went into this film...I always find myself fascinated by Botch's mouth -- his rapidly moving mouth is a series of mouth photographs brilliantly matched and synced with his dialogue -- and everything just looks GOOD. And unique, in that curious tissue-paper animation style.
This is the only film I can think of that I can show to anybody, at any age. Little kids have heard worse language than what comes out of Botch's (brilliant) mouth, and so has my grandmother.
The only downside, maybe, are the dated pop songs. Bruce Hornsby (who, in my opinion, sounded bad in 1983 as well)! That said, the orchestral score is catchy, crazy, and beautiful at times, so it's not all bad.
In fact, it's all very, very good, overall.
