Let’s face it, I was always going to enjoy this film. I love playing the highly successful games and find the characters really engaging: civilized ‘Eikoku Shinshi’ (English gentleman) Professor Layton and his adorable square-headed ‘apprentice’ Luke go off investigating mysteries and uncovering secrets, all the time stopping to answer puzzle after puzzle, be it offered by the people they meet, all of whom seem to have a puzzler or two, or simply challenging one another, inspired by things like trees or fonts. It’s all very sedate and charming and wholesome.
So a feature-length animation had a lot of appeal to me, even if unfortunately some things in the film rely on knowledge of games not yet released on these shores – although it’s nothing too puzzling. Only a few picarats’ worth.
Professor Layton and Luke are called upon to investigate mysterious rumours of reincarnation and eternal life in an opera house. Going to see the performance, they get wrapped up in an intriguing game, eternal life promised to the winner who solves the puzzles that will eliminate all others.
It’s a sprightly, likeable anime, character designs consistent with the quirky, Hergé-influenced designs of the game, animations from Pokémon’s studio OLM Inc. fluid and vibrant and locales from England lovingly recreated – not only the usual sights like Tower Bridge and Big Ben, but Regent Street, Covent Garden and later, The White Cliffs of Dover, all of which gave me a small thrill. Layton is an engaging Holmes figure, quietly charismatic and at once gentle and formidable. Luke is utterly adorable, especially trying to assert his identity and relationship to the Professor, and the rest of the cast, even the ones with selfish motives, are amusing and hard to dislike.
As with the games, though – and far more so than them – the film is slightly disappointing. Not because it is bad, but because it could have been rather better. Just as the games tend to give the impression some clever twist that shows why the impossible science-fiction world is possible in reality, only to finally fall back on fantasy inventions, I feel the film would have been more of a success had it left aside karate kicks, chase scenes with wolves and, yes, giant mecha, and instead aimed for a Holmes-derived mood of battles of the wit rather than the fist. For a film that had so many puzzles it could have fallen back on, the few that get thrown in here are rather unimpressive and obvious, and it’s a real shame that the overall mystery just gets tossed away when it’s time for the climax to come, essentially boiling down to ‘This whole thing could have just been a simple kidnap of one person and worked far better, the main mystery is just a tempting lie, and our machines do magical things.’
But as an anime for charming visuals, extremely lovable characters and a real sense of fun, you can’t go wrong. Not to mention that Layton is one of very, very few places where I hold the dub (UK, not US) just as dear as the original, both of which I believe are equally good – as a result, I look forward to hearing the localised version!
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