Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

              Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva also known as Professor Layton: The First Movie, is a 2009 Japanese animated mystery film directed by Masakazu Hashimoto. The film is a continuation of the Professor Layton series. The film takes place directly after the events of Professor Layton and the Last Specter, as a flashback story three years before the events of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.
              According to Level-5, the film stays true to the games, with music, puzzles, and characters. The film was released in Singapore on March 18, 2010, showing in Japanese with English and Chinese subtitles, and an English language version was released by Manga Entertainment in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2010. The film was released in the United States on November 8, 2011.

Plot

             In the present day, archaeologist and puzzle master Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke Triton solve the mystery of the theft of Big Ben, deducing the culprit to be Layton's perennial adversary, Don Paolo. Following this resolution, the pair return to Layton's office, where they listen to "The Eternal Diva", a record by an old student of the professor's named Janice Quatlane, prompting them to recall one of their earliest adventures together from three years ago...

             Layton is invited by Janice to attend an opera in which she is performing, centered around the legendary lost land of Ambrosia and the secret of eternal life it claims to hold, which it is claimed will be rediscovered when its queen returns. Janice believes recent strange occurrences are somehow connected to the opera: in addition to girls disappearing from London, the opera's composer Oswald Whistler has recently adopted a young girl who has claimed to be Whistler's deceased daughter, and Janice's friend, Melina, restored to life. Layton and Luke attend the opera at the Crown Petone opera house, built on theWhite Cliffs of Dover, and witness Whistler play the entire piece on an elaborate one-man orchestra machine known as the Detragon. Once the opera is complete, however, a mystery man (speaking through a marionette), informs the audience that they are to play a game, the winner of which will receive the secret of eternal life.

            The Crown Petone is revealed to be a ship, which breaks off from the cliffs and sets sail to isolate the "game", after which the mystery man unveils a series of timed puzzles intended to progressively eliminate the players until one winner remains. The first two puzzles challenge the players to find "the oldest thing they can see", then go where they can "see the largest crown", but Layton's prolific puzzle-solving prowess allows him and a group of eleven others to quickly deduce the answers (the sky and the Crown Petone itself, respectively). To "see the largest crown", the group leaves the ship in two lifeboats, rowing out to a distance from which they can see the whole ship, at which point the lifeboats start moving on their own, taking the successful players to their next destination.

             The next morning, the group finds that the boats have brought them to a mysterious island. Discovering a sculpted stone seal, party member and amateur historian Marco Brock realizes that they have discovered Ambrosia. Evading mentally-controlled wolves as they make their way towards the bizarre castle at the centre of the island, Layton, Luke and Janice become separated from the rest of the group and cobble together a makeshift helicopter that allows them to fly to the castle in short order. There, they solve the fourth and final puzzle that directs them to the final room of the contest, but Layton leaves Luke, Janice and two other contestants (Brock and child prodigy Amelia Ruth) to enter it while he explores the rest of the castle. He's followed by two others, who are quickly claimed by a trap.

              Finding Melina in the castle and witnessing her apparently talking to herself, Layton realizes the truth of what is going on, and races to rejoin the others: Oswald Whistler is behind everything, having conspired with Layton's old foe, maniacal scientist Jean Descole, to abduct girls from London and use the Detragon to "program" them with his dead daughter's memories in order to resurrect her. This is the fate that befell "Melina" — actually named Nina — and it is the fate that Whistler has planned for Amelia... until Layton explains that Janice was also a victim to Whistler's experiments, and that unbeknownst to Whistler, he had succeeded. Janice was "possessed" by Melina's memories, and had invited Layton to stop her father from hurting any more girls, at which point Descole reveals himself to be the true villain of the piece, having always intended to use the Detragon in concert with Melina's voice to combine the melodies hidden in the seal of Ambrosia to raise the island itself. Melina complies, but when Ambrosia does not rise after two attempts (Both involving Descole playing the melody of the stars and Melina singing that of the sea), Descole loses patience and thinking music is not enough, resorts to drastic measures. The Detragon destroys the castle, unveiling and becoming the controls of a gigantic robot of mass destruction called the Detragiganto, which Descole commandeers and begins rampaging across the island in a desperate attempt to uncover Ambrosia by force.

                  During the fracas, Melina tries to stop Descole, who knocks her away, causing her to fall over the side of the robot, leaving her holding on for dear life. Upon seeing this, Luke pleads to save her from falling. While Luke rescues Melina, Layton duels with Descole on top of the Detragiganto, and reveals that Descole had overlooked a third melody hidden in the seal (that of the sun, revealed by turning the seal upside-down). Again, Melina sings as Layton takes the Detragon's controls, and this time, Ambrosia does indeed rise, infuriating Descole even further. He lunges at Layton, believing that the ruins only belong to him, but merely damages the control panel instead, throwing the Detragiganto out of control and causing it to heavily damage itself and him to fall off it and disappear. In the aftermath of the island's rise, Melina's thoughts and memories leave Janice's body (as Melina could not take over someone else's life), and Layton and Luke wonder if Melina could have been a reincarnation of Ambrosia's queen.

                In a post-credits scene, back in the present day, Layton and Luke finish listening to the record, just as Janice arrives at Layton's office.