"Patema Inverted" mines a lot of entertainment value and social allegory from a pretty great concept despite being held back from greatness by a clunky narrative.

An orphaned girl and a fatherless boy bridge opposing societies in "Patema Inverted," a delightful animated fable from Yasuhiro Yoshiura.

The film by Yasuhiro Yoshiura suffers from many of the same flaws as other anime features - a plodding pace, broad humor, a bland heroine and snarly, one-dimensional villains.

Patema Inverted has children in its lead roles but, putting that aside, it's a relatively standard science fiction movie.