Well, call me old fashioned but I hate it when any foreign film is dubbed into English and the only times I even mildly tolerate it is when the main actors from the original do the dubbing themselves. Thankfully that's the case here, but even though an animated film I don't like that it was dubbed (rather similar to Renaissance, but with a couple of the original cast in this, namely Catherine Deneuve and her daughter Chiara Mastroianni).
This is a film based on a comic book (I'll be damned if I will condescend to use the term "graphic novel", which is solely for pretentious losers who won't call a spade a sodding spade 
) and charts the life of author (and co writer/director of the film) Marjane Satrapi living in and out of Iran, prior to and following the fall of the Shah.
This is a setting which is of great interest to me because one of my dearest friends who I've known since I was a teenager is Iranian and her parents left in this period. She frequently goes back there and has to dress a certain way and she has relatives in Iran, but also in Sweden (referenced in the film), so the autobiographic nature of this lends it an authenticity which related to things I've been told over the years.
The style is to die for, it's very cute, but also ridiculously artistic, it's a delight. Style over substance though? Not for me, it is dealing with issues which are grand in nature and telling it through this girl's eyes does not cheapen it, rather informs her character even more. My problem (and I hate that I have a problem with this movie because I wanted to like it so much and I adore the style) is that the longer it goes, the "less good" (I refuse to say "worse" because I don't dislike it at all) it gets.
The beginning is sublime, Marjane as a little girl is a wonderful character and the way her imagination works and how her mind processes information is brilliantly captured. Sadly though, as she gets older, that character so interesting gets distilled with the more worldly problems she has to face and it consequently renders the film less interesting as it progresses because you're replacing character with backdrop.
So a lovely film that is a quirky, thought-provoking, occasionally moving delight, which sadly fails to sustain it's drive throughout the entire course of the 95 minutes, but has more than enough throughout to make it consistently watchable and very easy to recommend. I wouldn't hesistate in suggesting this film to most people who can handle the prospect of animation with a serious subject matter.