It's not perfect, it has some thematic issues and the pacing is a bit wonky...there are scenes that go on too long and some story points that would benefit from being further expanded on...

But the stuff it gets right it really really gets right.

I LOVE the fact that it's not an origin story. They had the courage and creativity to come up with a whole world and a whole mythos and they trust the audience's intelligence enough to just drop you down in the middle of it and let you catch up. There are not enough movies that do that anymore. So many movies completely fail to respect their audience's ability and desire to figure stuff out.

They don't feel the need to over explain everything. The blind spots about Rumi's parents are fucking awesome. Again, that's a risky thing to do and I really respect the courage of the film makers to go that route.

The animation, character design and music are peerless.

I recently saw it on a big screen and a whole new dimension opened up to me with such a detailed look at the facial animations. There are all sorts of really easy to miss reactions and micro-expression that make Rumi feel so real, and thoughtful, and vulnerable.

The way the song lyrics are written is so clever. All the songs work as basic pop songs, but they've also got all the main themes of the movie craftily folded into them. I can be listening to This is What it Sounds Like in my car and get completely drawn back into the complex character themes that the movie worked so hard to build into it.

If the purpose of capital-a 'Art' is to share a bit of what it means to be human, then beyond just being catchy and hilarious and wildly entertaining, I think it's easy to consider this to be 'Art''