Tokyo Godfathers

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Christmas Eve. Middle-aged has-been Gin, aging transvestite Hana, and teenage runaway Miyuki are three homeless friends who stumble across an abandoned baby and do their best to care for the infant over the course of a long and perilous night.

This 2003 seasonal classic from Satoshi Kon, the brilliant anime director of Paprika and Perfect Blue is both sentimental and rude, very funny with a gob-smacking slapstick chase finale, dazzling to the eye and touching to the heart.

For all its echoes of Frank Capra and Charlie Chaplin (as well as John Ford), the movie is also a love letter to modern Tokyo, whose alleyways and skyscrapers are drafted with flawless precision and tinted with tenderness and warmth. Mr. Kon’s exuberant love of the city — to say nothing of his free-wheeling, slightly goofy eclecticism — is perhaps best expressed during the end credits, when the landmarks of its skyline wiggle and gyrate to the rhythms of a techno-disco, Japanese-language version of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy.’

By then you may find this musical message redundant, since the visual and narrative joys of the movie itself are so ample.

AO Scott, New York Times

As with the greatest animated films, the triumph of Kon’s work lies not just in its beauty and singularly sophisticated storytelling but in how that beauty and storytelling combine to give the films a sting so human you can forget you’re watching a cartoon.

Manohla Dargis, LA Times