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Mamoru Hosoda’s animated action adventure epic is certainly ambitious. 

Wildly ambitious, Mamoru Hosoda’s animated epic, Scarlet, (orig. Hateshinaki Sukâretto, or, roughly, Endless Scarlett) shoots for the sky, even as it remains tethered to the ground. 

Even so, one can’t help but be caught up in its sumptuously colored adventures, which encompass life, death, and a strange sort of  purgatory, somewhere between heaven and hell. It is in this purgatory that the titular character is introduced. She is a princess who has awakened in failure, as she sees it, since she fell short of avenging the death of her father. 

After some disturbing imagery, a title card reveals that the story begins in the late 15th century in Denmark, where young Scarlet welcomes home her father, the King, from warfare. Soon thereafter, however, he falls prey to an evil plot by his brother, and is executed, but not before calling out words to her that she cannot hear.

Naturally, Scarlet is haunted by her father’s (unheard) final words, but is swiftly convinced that her uncle is responsible for her father’s unjustified murder. In turn, Scarlet attempts to avenge her father by killing her uncle, only to fail and find herself in purgatory. 

I don’t know much about purgatory, but this particular realm is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Scarlet wanders about, occasionally being set upon by dead warriors intent on causing her second death, which would be her final death, reducing her to ashes which float away with the wind. 

Wait … there’s wind after death? 

Well, I suppose if you believe in a purgatory of some kind, why not? Hosoda, who also wrote the screenplay, is a longtime animator who has made many delightful films over the past 20 years, including The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009), Mirai (2018), and Belle (2021), so he’s definitely earned the right to be even more ambitious in his latest razzle-dazzle adventure, whose gorgeous landscapes and willowy character designs certainly remind of his overall portfolio. 

At times, Scarlet feels like a compendium of his greatest hits, mixed together in a more serious vein. So there is a giant soaring dragon who punishes wrongdoers, extended sword battles, comic relief by grumpy people who soon warm up, and an unlikely, though very sweet, love story to go along with the existential soul searching. 

For young ones, it may all be too much, but for audiences in their teens and older, the mixture of elements becomes like ballroom dancing, in that there are certain patterns that become more obvious, and sink in deeper, upon second (or third) viewing.

Scarlet, who never got to become friends with any common people because she lived her mortal life in a castle, now has the opportunity to befriend many people, including a young man from modern days, who is a paramedic and is solely focused on helping people back to health. (He declines to accept his death, which makes sense to Scarlet, even though she knows she’s dead.) Befriending people has an inevitable softening effect upon her, even as she remains hell bent on avenging her father. 

Mamoru Hosoda’s imagination conjures up an abundance of vivid scenarios, so there’s never a lack of something new or beautiful to admire on-screen. Unable to completely  escape its earthly trappings, Scarlet has more than its share of villains, all too eager to remain evil, in spite of their death. Will people never learn? 

The film opens Friday, February 13, in select area theaters, via Sony Pictures Classics.  For locations and showtimes, visit the official site.