Star Twinkle Precure the Movie - Wish Upon a Song of Stars
May also be known as The Legend of Lun.
Haven't had a genuinely good Precure movie in awhile, but maybe this can get things back on track. Budget! So nice to see Precure getting that when it matters. I appreciate the honesty in writing out Elena, Madoka, and Yuni in the first half. Movie doesn't care and doesn't pretend we should. Just Lala, Hikaru, and Fuwa befriending some starchild. Or rather, just Lala. To my surprise, they dropped all pretenses and made Lala the lead. Hikaru is there, but Lala gets basically all the emotional scenes. Starting with her being the jerk towards Yuma. This makes sense, as it's best to be cautious around unknown entities. Of course Hikaru would care more about their new space buddy. After she almost ate it of course. Lala had a really good scene where she calms down after the excitement and actually understands Yuma. Now they have two warp fairies? That's gotta make them dizzy. Just them having fun seeing Earth's greatest sights was pretty fun.
The villains actually feel like the filler here. It's not a story about fighting some great evil. But these Space Hunters were fun. They had some really neat powers and designs, leading to some top-notch fights. Especially the Zodiac transformations. Which look great. Why is this not in the main show? Lala breaking down and not being willing to let Yuma go be a planet even though it's the logical choice is kind of weird, especially since Hikaru was pretty mature about it. But it kind of makes sense, since Lala is still new at processing her emotions and doesn't know how to handle trauma or losing someone. Cool cosmic stuff with the birth of a planet and a legion of hunters going after it. Felt more epic than the main show despite the lower stakes. Cool space fights, but the climax is Lala and Hikaru landing on Yuma's planet and... singing? What the heck did the other Cures think of that? Not a climatic battle against a universe-destroying threat, but I can actually get behind it. The movie was about meeting a new friend and having to say goodbye too soon, so a song felt appropriate. Helped that the song and CG dance was good, though this makes spoiling it in the main show a mistake. Strong ending both visually and for Lala as a character.
Reminds me of some of the good parts of the Maho and Kira movies. It knew exactly what to focus on, and it had a bunch of stuff that really should have been in the main movie. Great animation enhanced both the fun and cosmic parts. Movie characters were solid, getting the focus they needed without being irritating or taking away from the reason the audience is watching. No big distractions or any crossover shenanigans. Maho's 7 movie streak is finally over. The Miracle Lights played an important, yet downplayed part overall, which was sorely needed after a whole terrible movie about them. Good movie that demonstrates the team behind Precure can still make a good product when everything lines up. Now if only they could have applied that to the show proper.