Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (2009)

Andrew's a big fan of the Professor Layton puzzle games for the DS, so he was delighted to receive the movie on Blu Ray & DVD for Christmas, and we popped it in the machine, after much nagging, last week. I think it's fair to say that he enjoyed it more than I did. 

A Japanese animation that follows the look of the game completely, the movie is a curiously uninvolving mystery, with an odd supernatural element, and only about 6 puzzles bunched up in the middle. There are some funny characters and the occasional humorous line, but there's far to much expositional gobbledygook and a lack of pace to the movie as a whole. 

The animation is good solid 2D with some pretty looking 3D CGI graphics thrown in, particularly in the impressive crown-shaped opera house/ship that Layton and his young assistant Luke find themselves trapped on. I was hoping the movie would be more like the old Where's Wally TV show that stopped every so often to let you look for Wally, but with puzzles. Apparently there will  be more movies, so I can still hope for this format to be taken on board.