In an age when the high-budget special-effects blockbuster has sunk to such lows as The Lord Of The Rings, it is incredibly rare for a movie to be truly visually dazzling from start to finish. It is even more rare for a movie to tell an actual story with a relevant moral, in a science fiction setting, without being the least bit contrived.

I didn’t expect to see a movie any time soon that would accomplish both these things, especially not a cartoon.

But such is Metropolis, opening in Toronto on January 25th. Not to be confused with the 1927 Fritz Lang classic of the same name, the two films nevertheless have many things in common: the future, robots, subterranean worlds and so on. Still, this Metropolis actually has its own history.

In the late 1940s, a man named Osamu Tezuka created a manga comic strip depicting a dystopian future where robots live in underground ghettos and humans are at the mercy of their own technology. This Metropolis was more or less ground zero for the familiar Japanese Anime style that is still being copied today.

With Metropolis, animators Katsuhiro Otomo and Rintaro have brought Tezuka’s vision to life with an incredible mix of traditional animation and mind-blowing digital effects.

Unlike the recent computer-animated Final Fantasy, which tried (and failed) to appear realistic, the cartoon characters in this cartoon look like cartoons. To me they looked sort of like Mega Man, which was excellent, since Final Fantasy had absolutely nothing to do with the Nintendo game it was supposed to be based on. But I digress.

The fantasy world that Otomo and Rintaro have created for this movie is aesthetically perfect for the story, which is at once dark, twisted, cute and fun.

The plot is just fantastical enough to save itself from melodrama: a detective named Shunsaku Ban and a boy named Kenichi are looking for a mad scientist named Dr. Laughton who is trying to wreak havoc on the world.

Dr. Laughton’s creation, a human-like robot named Tima, is unaware that she is going to be used as a weapon and that a human named Rock is trying to kill her.

The movie is understandably rated PG-13 for violence and destruction, all lovingly rendered with glorious digital animation. Since this is a cartoon, the computer graphics come off as stylish, not gratuitous, unlike all live-action movies released since Jurassic Park.

As previously stated, there is a moral to the carnage, about technology stripping away our humanity. This isn’t surprising, considering the story was based on a post-WWII Japanese comic.

Nowadays the message is so relevant it should be declared a worldwide emergency.

In short, those in the mood for an excellent piece of cinematic fantasy that will engage their mind and overwhelm their senses will do well with Metropolis. Otherwise, there’s a little glassy-eyed hobbit promising to look very mystified for three hours in exchange for your $12.50.