Goodbye, Don Glees!

This is a great movie. I did not expect myself to cry. It had a good story. The pacing could throw you off, but its message was incredible. Finding each other's treasures among themselves was a nice touch. I was hoping that Drop was fleshed out more as a character. You pick up things along the way which are apparent. This could've done much better if it had been in an episodal format. In terms of visuals, it's great. The way it captured the setting around them was beautiful.

The ending sequence was a great callback for the characters. I watched this ... with nothing in mind and thought it was a film about friends and their chemistry. It shows their development throughout their journey, and the characters' lives and struggles feel grounded and relatable. I like the lines that Drop says to both Roma and Toto. I could say that it struck me differently that I felt more emotional by the end.

In January of 2018, a little anime called A Place Further Than the Universe aired in Japan, winning the hearts of anime fans all over for its fresh, nuanced, down-to-earth take on the well-worn premise of young girls going on an adventure. I need to rewatch that series some time, and with the news that it's FINALLY getting an English dub and home video release, I'll actually have an excuse to do so! After the show's success, the team behind it decided to try their hand at another project, a movie called Goodbye Don Glees. The movie tries to go for the same initial premise ... and appeal as Yorimoi did: Dorky kids on a down-to-earth adventure to a real world location that has great personal significance to them, with even the marketing going into this. But what the marketing tried to sell the movie as and the movie itself are two very different beasts, and as much as I hate to say it, Goodbye Don Glees wasn't necessarily the home run that Place Further Than the Universe was.

The story centers on three young boys—Roma, Toto, and Drop—who are a tight knit group of friends, naming their little group Don Glees and spending time together in the countryside. But they don't exactly have the best reputation and are often picked on. One day, Roma spends all his money on a cheap drone with intent to use it to take a video of fireworks the next town over, or if not that, the fireworks Don Glees set off for the night. But that night turns out to be a fateful one as they're hit with one misfortune after another: Their fireworks don't go off, the drone goes missing, and later, a forest fire occurs. Worst of all, the townspeople believe that Don Glees are responsible for it. But the kids think the missing drone might have proof of their innocence, so they decide to go on an impulsive journey into the mountains to find it and clear their names.

From what I've heard, the original Japanese marketing made a big deal about the characters going to Iceland, which only happens in the last third of the movie. 85% of the movie is focused on the trio of boys and their quest to find their missing drone in the countryside. Now, these parts of the movie are legitimately great, with the animation really going all out in conveying the natural beauty of the woods and the countryside. Of course, the animation quality isn't limited to just the backgrounds. Similarly to Place Further Than the Universe, a lot of attention is paid to how the characters move and how they express themselves through body language, like the way Drop sits or the way Toto hunches over when he feels insecure. Speaking of the characters, the main trio are a delight to watch. They actually feel like real dorky kids from the way they move, talk, and get into scrapes, and their designs change believably near the end of the movie. It helps that a lot of their banter and interpersonal conflicts are pretty naturalistic without bordering on cheese. I honestly wouldn't have minded if the whole movie had just been about their adventure through the woods. Low-key, slice-of-life movies have their place! I mean, the Laid-Back Camp movie exists, y'know!

But as much as I want to love Don Glees as a movie, if the rating didn't clue you in, it has quite a bit of issues holding it back, with the main one being the really rushed, shoehorned in third act that feels like it's only there because the staff felt like they absolutely had to escalate the movie's plot by the end. The third act never felt like it was properly built up, and when the characters are made to go to Iceland, it just zooms through the process of exploration in favor of throwing in a very heavy-handed emotional climax at the end, with the shift into said third act being so intense and dramatic that it feels like you got hit with a case of whiplash, eschewing the rest of the movie's down-to-earth charm. It also results in a certain twist coming across as a lot more predictable, even though it was foreshadowed well in advance. Say what you will about Place Further Than the Universe doing the same thing, but there, the writers actually had the time and wiggle room to properly show the process, build up to its own emotional climax, and used every tool at its disposal to have it make an impact. Furthermore, the drone and forest fire subplot doesn't get much in the way of resolution at the end, because it just gets dropped in favor of the Iceland trip. Also, the character of Chibori is woefully underutilized. From what I've heard, the Japanese marketing also made a big deal out of this character, but she really only gets one scene in the whole movie and is just there to be a prop for Roma's development. Yeah, she's mostly just a waste of animation and has no character beyond supporting Roma.

So basically, bad marketing made the movie tank, and I'm not exaggerating. Apparently in Japan it did pretty badly at the box office, which sucks because other than the flaws I mentioned above, Goodbye Don Glees is a fairly cute movie that really showcases director Atsuko Ishizuka's talent, alongside that of the rest of her team. Plus, it's getting an English dub and a home release in the US this month, so you'll be able to watch it legally fairly soon. So while I do admittedly like Place Further Than the Universe better, if you're looking for a fun, wholesome movie to watch, I'd still recommend you watch Goodbye Don Glees, even if its third act feels very heavy-handed and out of place in what's supposed to be a fun slice-of-life adventure.

“Goodbye, Don Glees!” is what happens when You have mediocre first two acts and absolutely slaughter the third one.

This movie tries hard to be deeper than it actually is. It’s a coming of age mish mash of ideas and themes topped with really heavy handed and pointless philosophical monologues. Unfortunately it’s another example of a pretty solid story held back by an incompetent plot. Its third act is incredibly disjointed from the rest of the movie and is an example of how not to end a movie.
Speaking of story and plot… I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms ... interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

“Goodbye, Don Glees!” is a coming of age story… and that’s it. Apart from the visuals that are really good and towards the end even very, very good, this movie has absolutely nothing to distinguish itself from the sea of other coming of age tales. Three boys – Roma, Toto and Drop go on a poorly justified adventure. There is no real reason for them to go, the only reason they do is some social media bullshit. They aren’t part of an official investigation by the authorities, their parents are pissed with them, there is only some crap on the bootleg Instagram. When Roma gets back home his parents act like nothing happened. So why the hell would they go and risk their health? Oh yeah… because the plot demands it and the writers are too inept to write something organic. Even when the boys encounter cops, they are not pursued by them. The only reason why they run is their own stupidity.
To be fair that’s not the worst part, I’ve seen far worse justifications to move the plot along. The worst part is… I’ll get to that.

First, the thing I liked, probably the only thing connected to writing, is a setup done at the beginning of act 1. Toto teases Roma about his crush and dials her phone number so his friend could “tell her something”. He dials the wrong number and instead he is connected to a lone phone booth in Iceland. Someone answers that phone call which is demonstrated by the call timer on Toto’s phone. The person on the other side hears Toto’s pseudo motivational speech. I like that it’s a very subtle set up to something that will have a resolution in act three. The movie doesn’t make a big deal about the fact that someone answered the phone. There are no needless zooms on the timer or even a voice from the other side. It’s just there on the side. The frame is concentrated on Toto speaking and treats that as the main point. The only other moment when this scene is referenced is at the tail end of act 3. This is probably the only good and subtle setup of the whole script. It’s all downhill from here.

The characters themselves aren’t very interesting and in a story like this that’s a big problem. It’s just the standard coterie of Toto – the overachiever that walks the path that his parents set for him, Roma – the protagonist that’s the catalyst for most crap and Drop – the newcomer that shakes things up. Nothing really special. There is nothing about them that makes them stand out. You can easily mistake them for any other coming of age squad.
One of the weirdest points of the plot is the relationship between the boys. It’s stated that the OG Don Glees are Roma and Toto and Drop is a newcomer to the squad. Toto met him literally a few hours ago and is still more than willing to spill his guts to him about his problems and fears, despite not being able to do it with Roma – his best friend. He does that right after getting into a fight with Drop and making Roma act like a spoiled brat and walk off.

Now, let’s talk about the worst part of the plot.
The movie blows its load with one of the dramatic beats from the get go. In the beginning Roma speaks about death and it’s inevitability and at the end of act one we get two, heavy handed “clues” (I am being generous now, You can’t miss it even if You tried) about the state of Drop. It’s so obvious it’s almost insulting. Then in act two his fate is blatantly stated with a narration about “his last adventure”. . Add to that some scenes when Drop is an obvious outsider to the group dynamic, topped with zooms on him while having a melancholic or sad face expression. It kills a lot of its drama. Because of it, when we finally got the news about Drop’s death (Yes, we don’t even get to see that) the movie didn’t get any kind of emotional reaction from me.
Another thing that really killed the death part for me is the fact that we don’t really get to know Drop. He has some scenes of interacting with Roma and Toto in both act 1 and 2 but those aren’t really deep enough to let us know him. We know from at least the tail end of act 1 that he’s going to die so why not give something that would consolidate him as the emotional epicentre?

The intro monologue would be pretty solid if it was as in the epilogue not the prologue. As it stands it is just pointless. It’s too heavy handed to work as a proper foreshadowing to the point that it’s just a spoiler. Why? Why would You do that? Wouldn’t it be better to leave it for the last act and let it hit hard as a truck? Let us get to know Drop better in act two, make him likeable and sympathetic and then after we think that everything would be ok, let him die. Make it a dramatic moment of suffering for both the viewers and the rest of the coterie. It would still need some foreshadowing, subtle foreshadowing mind You, but it’s not like it’s an impossible task. The writers prove that they are able to create such elements with the whole phone booth setup.

Now let’s talk about the absolute shit show that is act three. It’s so disjointed from the previous two that it might as well be a part of a different movie. It starts after a pointless time skip. How long? No idea, it’s never stated. We don’t even see Drop’s death. We are just stuck with its aftermath. With Roma and Toto’s pain and even that isn’t shown for long because our coterie gets a new quest from beyond the grave.
From that point on everything the movie shows is created to evoke emotions in the most obvious and heavy handed way possible. The frames, the camera movement and above else the music. Without the music there would only be one scene that could have had a chance to evoke the feeling of grandeur (or any kind of feeling actually) and it would be the one with the waterfall. That is a solid scene. From the background to camera movement and music, everything is almost perfect for a scene like that. On top of that the scene ends with the payoff to a setup we got in act 1. The one with the telephone call.

There is also something that is pretty pointless and never resolved. The crush Roma has on a girl. We get some flashbacks with her, we get a scene where calling her turns out to be the catalyst of the whole movie and we even get her as the last person we see before the credits. Why? Why would we get to see someone who’s so absent from the main plot as the sendoff? Why wouldn’t we get a proper confrontation between her and Roma and maybe some kind of resolution to that plot point. The plot point is set up but we never get a payoff to it. It’s so annoying. The writers could just forget about her after the phone booth scene but no, for some reason we have to see her at the very end. It’s so unnecessary and feels like a pathetic setup for a sequel that will never come.

Listen, I’ve seen worse movies. A lot of them actually, I’m a camp connoisseur so I know my way around bad movies. This one? This isn’t a total travesty. It’s just rushed, has a lot of disjointed elements and treats its viewers like eggs (is afraid to show Drops’ death or any other kind of farm). For that reason it is extremely hard for me to recommend this movie on the basis of its script. I would say You can watch it for the visuals and act 3 for the synergy of visuals and audio but that’s the best the movie has to offer unfortunately.