In a strange way, Tomm Moore reminds me of the early days of Hayato Miyazaki, frequently regarded by anybody who's ever seen one of his movies (or just wants to sound like they know what they're talking about) as the greatest animated filmmaker with the possible exception of Walt Disney. It's not that all of his stories are necessarily the most amazing things ever created. It's more that there's such a fresh innocence provided by the characters and the fact that it never takes a cynical eye to its own story that makes me mentally compare the two as I'm watching their works.
Both directors have the ability to tell solid stories, but I think it's telling that even some of Miyazaki's early works aren't held as high as a lot of his later work, but even a "not as good" Miyazaki movie is still pretty good. The same seems to hold true with Tomm Moore, who tells a story that isn't quite on part with stories like
Spirited Away or
Frozen but stands close behind them by the things it brings to the animated film "party" that other sources don't.
