Audience reviews
12 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Frousties
Cucuruz Doan's Island is true proof that the UC timeline is creatively bankrupt.
Imagine pitching "hey let's remake that single, not that important episode from the 0079 show but stretch it to FIVE TIMES the runtime without adding anything of value"
No truly if you've watched 0079 this movie is completely worthless. It doesn't expand on anything that 0079 already expressed very well in a condensed 20mins. If I was feeling mean I could even call this a tax writeoff!
Anyway, the production quality is pretty good, but that's what's expected out of Gundam at this point, and since there isn't much happening (remember this is a 20min plot stretched and padded into a movie), there isn't really many scenes to take advantage of it.
It's also pretty weird to choose this episode in particular fo…
Read at the sourceWitchFromMercury
I've seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam episode that this movie was based on but I barely remember it, outside of it introducing Zaku martial arts. In that way, I went in to watching this movie pretty much as a fresh experience. I liked how authentic this movie was to the style and feel of the original anime series. All the character designs are perfect, it's nice seeing those 80s style anime eyes again.
Other than frustration with Amuro being Amuro and him not asking anything about who Doan was, this was a nice story. The children characters were really endearing and I liked Doan. My only issue with the movie was that I wish the battle scenes were more fleshed out. Especially after bringing in Sleggar, it was disappointing to see him and Kai fold so easily. And the villains had Cucuruz…
Read at the sourcek-0da
Unbelievably fun. Beautiful animation, beautiful robots. Wish I got to see the white base more but I get why they weren’t in it as much. Marcos was good but I wish Cara his character instead. The music was really good too. Sleggar was a lot better here, and Bright’s character improved tenfold with the more expressive animation. Villain team was meh but the island residents made up for it. Fraw Bow was also really good despite having like six lines the whole movie. Kai Shiden and Hayato Kobayashi, mayors of losertown, got their asses beat by a goat. I wish the secondary pilots didn’t get the floor mopped with them, and that the fight scenes were longer in general, but that’s not a huge deal IG.
Read at the sourceThe_Namer
Considering that this is a feature-length adaptation of a single TV episode, I was pleasantly surprised at the pacing. It doesn't feel stretched too thin. Much of it is reminiscent of the Ranba Ral arc from the original series, in that it gives Amuro some downtime away from White Base. Despite that, the stakes are ultimately appropriately high for a movie by the climax. The story only falters in the resolution of one major conflict, which ends too quickly and easily, and is the main vestigial element betraying that this was originally all over in 25 minutes. Overall it feels like a classic Tomino-style war story.
The animation is excellent, especially for the well-directed mobile suit battles. Character designs retain the look of The Origin, being faithful to the original series for the m…
Read at the sourcepinkreverie
I absolutely loved this movie. There was so much fanservice for fans of the original series. The island's inhabitants were well-developed, and for once, the child characters didn't drive me up the wall! The Origin-style animation looked great too. While CGI Mobile Suits aren't everyone's cup of tea, the ones in this film are one of the better CGI integrations I've seen in anime. Just goes to show how talented Sunrise's artists are!
This is not a necessary watch, but if you're a fan of 0079 and don't mind the slower pacing, you will enjoy this! The development of the characters pays off so well in the end.
Read at the sourceKazual999
In short, they did the best they could with the uniquely odd situation they were in.
If you're a fan of 0079 I'd recommend giving this a watch.
Felt like a classic anime spin-off movie but with a higher tier of production quality than your typical Shonen movie.
If you watched the show already you know what's going to happen in the next episode.
That does suck some of the tension out of it. However, they do a good job of making you care for the movie-only characters.
The film did a good job of hitting all the nostalgia points.
It was nice to see everyone in modern animation & it was particularly nice to hear the classic music.
I brought a friend who's never seen any Gundam with me.
He caught on very easily & enjoyed it quite a bit but I wouldn't recommend it as a 1st Gundam experienc…
Read at the sourcelethargilistic
Absolutely a filler episode stretched to film length, but quite enjoyable. The padding felt so natural that I couldn't tell you exactly what was in the original.
Also quite funny as a piece of fan service. They do flashbacks to famous moments from the early parts of the series. Char even gets one line, lmao.
It fits Gundam thematically very well. At its heart, it's an anti-war movie that depicts a family struggling to live in an inhospitable environment caused by that conflict. There is a bit too much children crying for my taste, but it felt good.
Beautiful score.
Read at the sourceChykla
(Spoiler Free)
Fanservice done right, let me tell you why.
I have a great attachment to 0079 and all of its continuity. I grew up watching these and recently gotten my friend into the franchise watching the OG 0079 reminded me of what I love about 0079. The White Base crew. It is always great to hear Tooru Furuya reprise his role as Amuro (with his most recent one being his one liner from Hathaway's Flash). It does makes me sad whenever I think of previous seiyuus that voices Bright, Sayla, Mirai, etc but regardless everyone did a great job with this movie.
This movie is a spectacular retelling of the infamous 15th episode and I believe is based off of Gundam Origin Cucuruz Doan manga. You can think of this as, a filler movie. Completely unnecessary. Does this add on any important world…
Read at the sourcekaiser_the_2nd
Cucuruz Doan's island is a fun (yet kind of unnecessary) experience.
The infamous island episode of the original Mobile Suit Gundam is notorious for various reasons. The disjointed staff causing the animation to be extremely inconsistent (if hilarious) and the episode itself being considered "filler" being some of them. Tomino himself has disowned this episode in future releases and broadcasts.
The infamy of Doan's island says a lot about Yasuhiko's balls in trying to stretch it from a single self contained 25 minutes episode into a full movie with almost 2 hours of runtime. I dare to say it's a fruitful experiment as it delivers a decent film, but the reason it was made in the first place is what interests me the most.
The movie itself is good. You have very expressive and well made chara…
Read at the sourceAZakuII
Cucuruz Doan's Island is the retelling of an episode of 0079 that I barely remember. In the process of fleshing out the story, it expands the original episode to nearly two hours.
To be quite honest, I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I'm not one to enjoy CGI, but it was used pretty effectively here. It doesn't look great in every scene, but when it works it looks absolutely amazing - especially in scenes that are darker. Darker scenes tend to hide a lot of the flaws in CGI, and during these darker scenes it goes from being just okay to being really amazing looking. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than a lot of other CGI I see used in anime.
There a lots of little touches that evoke the feelings of the original series - from the soundtrack, to the visuals. They even…
Read at the sourceKurisuSparda
This is a retelling of Mobile Suit Gundam's missing episode number 15. I did watch the original episode when I watched 0079 and was really curious of what I would get out of this.
Voice acting is amazing, I'm surprised Toru Furuya still can portray young Amuro with no issue, and was really happy to hear Toshio Furukawa as Kai again. Some seiyuus were already here since Origin and Ken Narita has been Bright since Unicorn, but obviously long time fans like me are still gonna miss those who are gone. That said I'm happy to say everyone did a good job and lived up to expectations.
The animation's good, even though I know there will be some mixed opinions about the use of CGI for the Mobile Suits and rightfully so, but I was pleased with it. I can say the animation did add way more expression…
Read at the sourcepunishedsneed
This Doan's Island movie feels, overall, out-of-place. While the episode it is adapting has a self-contained plot, pulling it out of Mobile Suit Gundam and stretching it to the length of a movie has resulted in an empty experience. This movie would have been better off as a shorter episode in an OVA of reimagined 0079 escapades.
Character animation is emotive and interesting, but very exaggerated, just like The Origin OVA's. The writing and characterization is also just as exaggerated.
Mobile Suit combat is done in stylized CGI. This looks pretty good at points but also has awkward moments where you notice the anti-aliasing on faraway models.
In regards to the plot, the movie can't seem to decide whether or not it needs to justify itself or not. The stakes are sometimes played up unreal…
Read at the source
