Fridae

Cartoons seem to be ruling the roost this week. The other must-see movie of the week � besides the cartoon-based Transformers � is The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Voted the Best Animation Film at the Japanese Academy Awards last year, this completely delightful cartoon tells the story of a tomboy Makoto (voice of Riisa Naka) who accidentally discovers a way of travelling back and forth from the present to the past, and vice versa.

Astonished by the possibilities of time travel, she sets about changing things in the past so as to perfect the present. Sometimes though, things go hilariously out of control and she has to keep changing and rechanging the past before she gets it just right.

Time travel stories may have been a staple of cinema from as far back as the 1960s, but this Japanese manga still manages to give a fresh take on it. Ever so often, it throws up surprising twists and gags which even the most jaded cinephiles would consider original. And like all good cartoons, it manages to tie up its plot and subplots very neatly towards the end � and with a moral to boot.