Weekend Confirmed 150 - Ni No Kuni, Skulls of the Shogun, Proteus

To Garnet's comment about animation, the only thing that puts me off about Ni No Kuni is actually that it plays to stereotypes about animation. Really, the entire premise of anime's explosive appeal back in the late 90s-early 00s was how it subverted our expectations towards "cartoons." Rather than making something "for kids", it actually had violence and sex more explicit than live action films. Dually, CG films tend to mix adult humor into their child like worlds.

So, that said, yes Miyazaki tends to make children's stories universal---usually through sheer imagination---but he also plays to conventional hero archetypes and so forth. My Neighbor Totoro is probably his only mostly kid oriented film, but something like Spirited Away is basically his version of Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland---a big, universal adventure story. Ni No Kuni plays somewhat close to the Spirited Away model, but Oliver is a bit young for a real "coming of age" arc, and there is something a bit Fischer Price to the whole affair.

Like given the Pokemon comparisons, if you compare the aesthetics of that ip to NNK's familiars, you see just how juvenile it is. I mean Pikachu would look ridiculous as a real life creature, but the fact that he's modeled after a mouse/rat lends him a credence of realism, where as the familiars all seem doughy like stuffed toys. Now you could say that the look of everything fits in on a metaphorical level coming from Oliver's point of view, but I'm not convinced the writing is going that deep or for any sense of irony. Like, Drippy is pretty quirky, but he's not exactly Mr. Potato head from Toy Story.