Who's your daddy? Anime feature Tokyo Godfathers puts a fresh spin on the old trio-adopts-a-foundling story.

Tokyo Godfathers * Written by Keiko Nobumoto * Directed by Satoshi Kon * Starring Yoshiaki Umegaki, Toru Emori, and Aya 0kamoto * Samuel Goldwyn Films

Three oddballs who were never meant to be parents suddenly find themselves exploring their nurturing side when they accidentally discover an abandoned baby. This basic scenario has fueled movies as disparate as John Ford's Western 3 Godfathers, the dopey hit Three Men and a Baby, and the recent animated comedy Ice Age. In Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers, the titular troika are homeless--and one of them happens to be a gay ex-drag queen.

The 40-year-old Kon is a rising star among Japanese animators and second only to Spirited Away's master director, Hayao Miyazaki, having garnered worldwide acclaim with his first two features, Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress. But while those films made unusual forays through time and space--via the prism of show business, of all things--Kon gets gritty with Godfathers, firmly entrenching the story in the everyday reality of the homeless. The three leads--the flamboyant yet maternal Hana, the embittered alcoholic Gin, and the teen runaway Miyuki--will all come to grips with the ghosts of their pasts as they spend Christmas trying to find the mother of the baby they come across in a garbage dump.

Kon was smart to make this movie a Christmas story: Not only do his homeless heroes make for interesting magi substitutes, but the script's cavalcade of coincidence and contrivance goes down a little easier once you realize you're watching a holiday story. (Even though Godfathers is on the 2003 Oscar short list, it's too bad that the movie just missed the yuletide and got a January theatrical release in the United States; I suspect that it may become a holiday favorite on video.)

Western audiences may be a bit taken aback at how often Hana is referred to as a "homo" or "faggot" by Gin, but by the end of the film it becomes clear that Gin and Hana have become surrogate parents to Miyuki (and to baby Kiyoko). Even if they aren't lovers, it's apparent that there's a definite bond between the two. It also doesn't hurt that Hana winds up being the strongest and surest character in the movie. If you can get past the not-approved-by-GLAAD epithets, you'll discover a fascinating gay (and trans-gendered) character.

And if you've ever shied away from the more fantasy-based Japanese animation--or worried that it was all either kid stuff like Pokemon or crazy adult fetish fare involving busty schoolgirls--make sure to give Tokyo Godfathers a chance. It's a subtle, well-crafted movie for grown-ups (and older kids) featuring characters you can care about. The basic plot might give you a twinge of deja vu, but this new animated feature is smart enough to travel in directions you wouldn't have expected.