I thought they did the Anne Frank portion really nicely with her story and legacy, but I found the present-day part with Kitty, Peter and the refugees and their whole story really annoying and unnecessary.

Firstly, the romance between Kitty and Peter was really annoying and unnecessary, as this did not fit into or have anything to do with the story of Anne Frank, just seeming to be put there for the sake of including a romance (and of course because his name was also Peter just like Anne's Peter),because of course everything has to include a romance in now. It made no sense given they'd just seemingly known each other for a few days, if that, and suddenly Peter is claiming he is in love with her! Speaking of Peter, I found it really annoying how we were actually supposed to like him yet he steals of lots of people, being shown to pickpocket the wallets of all the visitors in the Anne Frank house, something which is never addressed or resolved, as he never shows any remorse for this or redeems this at all, with the film just being like "Who cares if he stole loads of people's money, he loves Kitty!" So I did not like Peter at all and his romance with Kitty and was annoyed that we were actually supposed to, like he's horrible to everyone else but Kitty, yet we're just supposed to like him simply because he loves Kitty, as who cares about everyone else losing their money?!

I also found the whole part nearer the end with the refugees really annoying, as it seemed like they were trying to cram too many social justice issues in at once, as well as this taking away the initial focus of the Anne Frank story. It just became way too preachy, and Kitty became increasingly irritating and annoying with her sudden preachy attitude, the way she actually threatened to burn Anne Frank's diary unless the police stopped trying to deport the refugees. This was just absolutely ridiculous and way too much, and Kitty was just very irritating as a character like this, as the film seemed to stray away from the focus of Anne Frank and WW2 and instead focus on all these other social justice themes of refugee-ism and focus on being preachy and extreme protesting, which had nothing to do with Anne Frank. It also really undermined and was rather disrespectful to the story of Anne Frank and WW2, as while refugee-ism is clearly a major concern, it is really wrong to actually compare it to the Jewish holocaust, where millions of jews were killed. The preaching and extreme protesting was a really contemporary thing that made no sense for Kitty, who has just awoken from the 1940s, to suddenly be doing.

I also found Kitty really irritating when she was making that preachy speech and protest to dismiss people for simply worshipping Anne Frank through naming buildings and everything after her, as that's not what Anne wanted, but rather to save children and families, when nobody was claiming to worship her, they were simply naming these places after her to create a legacy for her. It was also stupid the way she said that's not the message Anne was sending in her diary, as Anne never intended to send any message in her diary, given it was private.

I enjoyed the initial focus on Anne Frank's story and WW2, and the concept of her imaginary friend awakening in present day after over 70 years and finding out about Anne Frank's legacy seemed like an interesting one, but it would've been so much better if they hadn't made the Kitty character so irritating, preachy and unlikable, as well as if they hadn't included this horrible "bad boy" guy as a love interest who actually "LOVES" her too, and of course the whole contemporary social justice themes of preachiness and protesting and the issue with the refugees.

A new angle on the famous story with beautiful animation and spirit. But the movie turns into preaching for the last 20 minutes comparing the holocaust to the immigration crisis in Europe, both humanitarian crisis, but completely different in nature and scale.

This is a very good movie, and I really liked it. So rating it just 8 stars is, as far as I'm concerned, plain shame. But there are two very annoying faults standing between this movie and the perfect mark.

I mean, it is beautifully animated and acted. The two leads are simply wonderful. Namely Emily Carey as Anne Frank really feels like the girl who survived two years in a hidden apartment, stuck with her own family, another family and a crude dentist. And Ruby Stokes is perfect as the temperamental imaginary friend created by Anne Frank as a literary ploy in order not to speak with herself in her now famous diary. In fact I also loved the idea of the movie using this imaginary friend as a bridge between present day Europe and the days when the actual diary was written and it worked superbly almost all the way through.

And then we reach the ending and the perfect movie is turning all of a sudden from deep and thought provoking into simplistic attempt to solve the entire international refugees problem with a wave of a hand and a few brush strokes. And it also commits the sin of turning too preachy, as if it doesn't trust the viewers to get its point without having it spelled out in plain words. The movie didn't need this bluntness it was working so well without it.