It's one of those movies that just rehashes like the last arc of the TV series in some kind of a soft reboot, but I still like it and would recommend to anyone who have watched the original. Ironically for a series that often criticizes low quality animation, the movie is of lower quality than the original series, it still has heart never the less and offers a different enough experience than the original to justify itself.
Some people criticize this movie because there isn't much screen time spent on anime production, instead most of it is spent on getting the old gang back together, which I consider to be a goo idea. The original series already dealt with production, it already is somewhat of a rehash of the same "getting together to make an anime" type of story, it's better to have a different focus or else it would really be just more of the exact same thing.
Following a 4-year time skip from the TV series, something unfortunate has happened at Musashino, they got into financial trouble, almost went bankrupt and now only a handful of the original gang remain. The company now is too small to take on anime projects and instead work as a sub-contractor for individual episodes. Miyamori must take advantage of a unique opportunity to get her friends back and turn things around.I absolutely love this setup to be honest, it would probably be better if we had the time to see this incident that gets Musashino into trouble, like if this was a 2-part movie. Obviously it's a plot device to get a new story going when they didn't plan for it but it's still good because it's totally realistic that shit happens. I like how not all the characters are depressed from the time skip, some are depressed but others are doing well in their career, they don't need Miyamori to come awaken their passion or anything, they're just lending a hand when they find out Musashino is back in business. This is also a pretty realistic take, people got bills to pay so if you can't employ them they just go somewhere else, it doesn't mean you broke up, work is work.
The animation quality unfortunately takes a step down, I saw a bunch of badly drawn hands with the everyday talking scenes for example, when the original TV series which I just rewatched were basically spotless over all 24 episodes. The line work also had weight in the original but now they're just very bland looking. The special sequences are still well made like the original, almost as if they had sub-contracted out the everyday scenes?
I also have to criticize the quality of the in-universe anime, it's not as well put together. Take the 3rd Squadron Fighter Wing from the original series for example, it's like Ace Combat but with cute girls in cold-war era fighters. It's goofy that they're blowing up F-22s but that's because it's an in-universe anime and it needs a certain separation in tone from the base anime universe. The character design, the fighter jets, even snippets of story feel very coherent and thought out. In comparison the in-universe anime movie here just feels a bit too random, the characters feel like Kingdom Hearts or something but the story feels super serious. They spent a significant amount of time on getting this special guy to do the mechanical design for the show, but the weapons, spaceships and transports they have in this in-universe show totally suck and are easily the worst parts of it. It's like yea maybe you got the wrong guy there, or maybe he's lost his touch?
We sometimes get these magical shows even the creators didn't know was going to be so successful so they don't build in any sequal bait, following these up will always be a challenge. I think they tackled this challenge reasonably well, we got a great setup to change things up so a new story can be told. I don't feel like they've disrespected any of the character development from the original series. Even the characters that got depressed in the time skip haven't really forgotten their development in the TV series, they just have a new problem to overcome.
They're able to change up the formula to focus less on the nitty gritty of anime production but instead focus on the characters, I really like the growth they're giving to the 5 main girls for example, they definitely got more to learn and do here, zero character regression.
Some people say it's not as funny, I don't know about that, there's maybe less jokes but I still like the jokes in there especially with the call back to the 3rd Squadron show.
Oh, it's also a musical, yea like a Disney movie or I dunno a Bollywood film. Not sure how they came up with that but I like it.
Bonus point for the 3rd Squadron season 2 episode they're contracted to make.
