The top award winner at the 2017 Annecy Animation Festival, Lu Over the Wall is a genre-bending musical mermaid tale from noted anime director Masaaki Yuasa.

Following his parents’ divorce, 14-year-old Kai and his father move back to the superstitious seaside village where the latter grew up. The locals discourage music for fear it attracts vampiric merfolk but despite his grandfather’s warnings, Kai joins a band. Sure enough, their rehearsals entice a fun-loving young mermaid whose fins become feet at the sound of the beat and whose siren-song voice causes irresistible dancing.

Although its primary story element is similar to Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Ghibli’s Ponyo, Lu Over the Wall runs in very different directions thanks to Masaaki Yuasa’s offbeat imagination and anarchic animation style that recalls everything from pop art to Matisse to 1920s 2D cartoons. And although it’s endearingly trippy, it remains a family-friendly fairytale that explores understanding, acceptance and inclusiveness in a most delightful way.

"A charming story filled with fantasy and childlike wonder." – Japan Times

MIFF recommends this film as suitable for ages 12+