Even a fantasy anime can be pretty heavy to take. A Tree of Palme is not an easy film to watch. The various plot-lines are mixed and matched, and kept intentionally unclear. But this 2002 movie is still a joy to watch, and throws in more than its share of excitement to keep your interest.

Palme is a robotic character, created by a woodsman to care for his sick wife. As the story opens, the wife, Xien is already dead and Palme is in a comatose state, or at least what passes as a comatose state for a little boy robot. When he awakens a strange woman appears to give him an egg to deliver to someone named Soma in the land Below. When the woodsman is killed by soldiers after the egg, Palme is left alone to go on his journey. He starts off a bit innocent, naive, and only semi-aware, but eventually grows, becomes self-aware, and decides to become human. Yes, this is a Pinocchio story.

Along the way, Palme gains friends and enemies. He is hunted for the egg, and also by those who see him as a valuable commodity to sell. He befriends and is befriended by a girl named Popo, and allies with a young thief and would-be warrior named Shatta.

Danger lurks which keeps one’s attention. But the narrative does suffer in that there are obvious scenes which tie other scenes together, but which have been cut. A Tree of Palme has a running time of about 140 minutes, but to shortening it to that length obviously sacrifice much of the tale. But if you pay attention, your mind will fill in the blanks.

There is some great artwork here. The animation starts off great, but as the film progresses, it does seem they had to cut a few corners. There are some violent scenes, so don’t show to very young children.

So A Tree of Palme is hardly perfect. There are a few flaws, but still it is a good story well told. The changes in Palme’s character are handled effectively and enhance the experience. It is worth you giving it a look.