Why is the Escaflowne movie so different?

Escaflowne opened in Japan on June 24, 2000. Produced by Sunrise and animated by Studio Bones, it reunited director Kazuki Akane and designer Nobuteru Yuki with the material, and both changed their approach. Yuki redesigned the entire cast in a longer, sharper line; Gaea itself was rebuilt with a more Asian design than the television series' European-influenced kingdoms; and the story narrowed to Van and Hitomi and their damage.

The Hitomi of the film is not the cheerful athlete of the series but a depressed, alienated schoolgirl who wishes to disappear, summoned to Gaea as the prophesied Wing Goddess who can wake the doomsday Guymelef. Van is correspondingly harder: a violent, hot-headed rebel against his brother Folken's Black Dragon Clan. The film exists because the series had succeeded everywhere except at home: its producers credited the worldwide success of the television version for the film being made at all. Bandai gave it a limited American theatrical release in January 2002.