Reviews: RottenTomatoes (59%), IMDB (7.0), Wikipedia, Amazon.

Watch online: WatchAnimeMovie.

Similar movies: anime.

Summary: A cute story of a young cellist named Gauche who must practice hard for an upcoming concert. The conductor picks on him repeatedly because his performance is not hundred per cent. On successive nights, Gauche is visited by talking animals: a cat, a cuckoo, a raccoon and a mouse. They bow to Gauche and implore him to teach them various aspects of music. In reality, the animals are teaching him! :) Gauche realizes this much later and feels sorry for having been so haughty and so unkind to most of the animals. The story has a beautiful message and would appeal to young children.

Personally, I connect with this movie as follows: when I am sharing my knowledge with somebody, am I really a teacher? Or am I a student? It's not obvious.

This movie helped me discover Kenji Miyazawa (1896 - 1933), an acclaimed Japanese short story writer. Would love to read his works in English. For example, Once and Forever.

detailed synopsis at Nausicaa.Net.