A Tree of Palme (2001)
Animation Production: Genco
Released by: ADV Films
Running Time: 136 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

A Tree of Palme is a rather interesting little release in that it blurs the line between what we’ve come to know as anime and a more generalized style that could be attributed to any one country or animation studio. It really has a unique look for a theatrical animation release coming out of Japan and as such it easily catches your attention and establishes itself as something completely different than what you’re used to.

Let’s see what this new release from ADV Films is all about and how it stacks up with it’s take of the classic Pinocchio story/concept.

Story

"Palme, a wooden puppet, has been created to care for the dying wife of his master. After her death, Palme looses his sense of purpose and ceases to function. He remains inactive until a mysterious woman, followed by a group of ruthless pursuers, arrives at the master’s workshop. She is desperately seeking aid in delivering a precious package to its destination across the world. When his master is mortally wounded by the woman’s pursuers, Palme agrees to aid the woman with her mission, thus taking the first step in his long and incredible journey to discover who he truly is." -- ADV Films

Review

A Tree of Palme is at its core a story about finding one’s humanity and the great travels and adventures that accompany this soul search. Our protagonists, Palme, is a technically advanced robot made out of the wood of a Kuroop Tree who has until this point led a life that had only one purpose, to serve Xian, a young girl who brought much joy to his simple world. Unfortunately when she passed away so did his reason for living, which made him go into a hibernation-like state. However, with the arrival of the mysterious woman that gives Palme the Egg of Touto everything changes and life returns to the once soulless robot.

Now he will take on a new quest that will lead him to many exotic locations and bring him together with a new group of friends that will open his eyes to the world around him and the very nature of what it means to be alive. Soon Palme will come to desire one thing above all others as his travels unfold, to become a full-fledged human, but to do this may end up costing him more than it’s really worth. Is he ready for such a radical transformation and does he realize everything that it entails? What about his new friends? Will they support this dream and help him realize it?

A Tree of Palme was not at all what I expected it to be as it took many surprising turns and twists with its premise. Admittedly, during the first thirty to forty five minutes of the movie I was worried by the very slow pace and overall lack of character likeability factor of Palme who was largely inactive and awkward during the setup for the quest that will take place in the last two thirds of the film. One we reach that forty five minute mark though things take off as the core cast of protagonists is introduced and the first hints of character development begin creeping in.

Basically, what begins as a simple mission to deliver the Egg of Touto escalates to be a lot more as not only does Palme develop a desire to become human, but also the rest of the cast finds that they too want to break out of their current situations and reach for something completely new like Popo’s decision to leave her strict mom to join Palme in his quest. With our robotic hero at the center of this band of friends he quickly learns about what it means to be alive and through the course of the movie begins acting on the knowledge they provide him with. This is perhaps the best idea that’s explored in the entire movie.

At the beginning of the film Palme is an unemotional, unresponsive machine that seems to be largely operating on some type of auto-pilot mode. As he starts interacting with people and the friends he makes in his adventure he slowly evolves into a completely different character, one that embodies all the emotions and drivers of those around him. In fact he becomes disturbingly emotional by the time we reach the climax of the story, to the point where he puts the others' lives, including Popo’s in great danger. The best example of this change and strong assimilation of human behavior/emotion is when after seeing one of his friends wield a sword to protect the group he takes his own dagger and proceeds to kill an innocent animal they had just saved while everyone else is asleep. It’s not until his friends respond in terror to the animal’s slaying that he realizes the power of the actions he just undertook.

So while he dreams of being granted his wish of becoming a full-fledged human, he is in fact evolving to a form that in many ways is human-like. From experiencing strong emotions like love and hatred to understanding the pain of others and developing the ability to sacrifice for them, Palme in a way becomes a person, but he doesn’t realize this during his quest. Ultimately he realizes that something even greater is in store for him as he comes face to face with his destiny however.

Overall, the storyline while predictable in spots manages to pull enough surprises to lift it to a plane of its own. I really came to like the entire cast of characters by the end of their adventure and enjoyed seeing them grow beyond who they were in the beginning. One other area where A Tree of Palme also stood out for me was in its overall production quality and unique artistic direction, which gave the film a living, breathing world unlike any other. This helps the movie tremendously and lends a tremendous sense of realism to a fantastic world.

Visually A Tree of Palme is truly a brilliant piece of work, the production staff should be commended for creating a world that is beautiful, mysterious, realistic, immersive, fantastic and colorful among many other things. Interestingly this movie was almost entirely produced with traditional cel animation, a rarity in these days of CGI enhanced anime productions. This makes for very smooth animation that is filled with life and character. Most of the background paintings seemed worthy of being framed pieces of art in a museum somewhere.

The soundtrack was probably the one area where I think this movie came up short. Not a terrible lot was memorable outside of a small number of instrumental pieces that played during flashbacks or sadder moments. The voice acting was fantastic in both soundtracks although I thought Palme sounded a bit to childish at times, especially closer to the end of the movie which to a degree is understandable given his evolved personliaty at that point in the film.

The DVD for this release is amazingly good and comes with enough extras to satisfy all fans of this work. Inside the DVD box a small booklet is included with a lot of information on Director Takashi Nakamura who also happens to be the creator of the story/screenplay as well as an overview of the production and the artistic work that went into it. This is a fantastic little bonus and was an enjoyable read that shed a lot of insight into the movie. On the disc itself extras included: a behind the scenes featurette, character, mechanical and prop design sketches, story, character, mechanical and world view artwork, 5 key sequences animatics and the original Japanese promos and trailers.

Needless to say that the video and audio transfers for this disc are amazing given how recent the work is. Both the English and Japanese tracks are encoded with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Final Thoughts

A Tree of Palme is an unusual release that truly inspires and makes you think a little about what it means to be alive. While it takes a bit of time for the film to get some traction going when it does it becomes a memorable adventure that you’ll be happy you took part in. This one is recommended for anime fans looking for something truly different and more thoughtful.

Jeffrey Couto