Not only were the effects incredible, but the overall animation was beautiful and so realistic, you'd forget it was animation at all.
Yes, it was almost 3 hours long, but every minute was worth it.
One scene in particular got to me, and I'm still trying to figure out why. I won't give the scene away, even though we ALL saw it coming.
Hint: the giant tree.
A significant event took place involving this tree, and it made me cry. It wasn't an emotional 'oh, how sad' response. The scene got to me on a deeper, spiritual level. Like, I felt a spiritual pain...a feeling in my chest that I get when experiencing emotionally devastating. but as I said, it felt like a spiritual response, not emotional.
I still don't understand why it affected me so much. I have a bit of Cherokee (Native American)in me from my dad's side of the family, and I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
Could my Native American heritage (as small as it is) have anything to do with my spiritual response to this film?
Still, don't let my story make it seem like this movie is spirit-breaking...it is AWESOME. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it. You're in for one hell of a masterpiece.