The Tale of Princess Kaguya (U.)
Directed by Isao Takahata.
Featuring the voices of Aki Asakura, Kengo Kora, Takeo Chii and Nobuko Miyammoto Japanese with subtitles. 137 mins
With Miyazaki retiring, Isao Takahata had briefly assumed the role of Studio Ghibli top man, but now he's retired too. His last work arrives under the cloud of being one of the five animated films that have “robbed” The Lego Movie of it Oscar nomination. It deserves better than that though I can imagine the casual moviegoer being a little perplexed that this quite basic and rather long-winded hand drawn tale based on an old Japanese fairy tale should be deemed superior to a piece with Batman, Will Ferrell and building blocks.
With Miyazaki you always knew what you were going to get visually but Takahata varies his styles. While Grave of the Fireflies was in the traditional Ghibli style, My Neighbours The Yamadas was like a cartoonist's sketchbook brought to life. Princess Kaguya is pitched between them. It's quite basic hand drawn animation, without the watercolour lushness we usually associated with Ghibli; the characters aren't detailed and sometimes it doesn't bother to colour in all the frame, and the edges are left blank.
It's rudimentary but, at times, fantastically effective. At the start a childless bamboo cutter comes across a tiny hold-in-your-hand princess in a magic bamboo stalk. When he takes her home she becomes a baby and they love her like her own. These scenes are magically effective, the simplicity of the technique perfectly expresses the simple but overwhelming love they have for this child. It's not photo-realism but it is lifelike and it's the most moving piece of animation since the first 10 minutes of Up.
The child grows up at a supernatural speed, becomes an unhappy princess in the city, so beautiful that suitors come from all over to woo her and from there the story becomes a rather dry parable about misguided parenting and not needing material goods. It's like a children's film from the era when children's films weren't supposed to be fun. Which is fine but it does go on a bit and there is something a bit prim and precious about the basic animation – it telling Stop, Look Traditional Craftsman At Work.
This Japanese fairy tale has some universal themes but it is also a slightly impenetrable to western audiences. There has been a creeping conservatism in recent Ghibli films and this could be emblematic of Studio Ghibli seeming to turn its back to the west. Let's hope not.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya (U.)
Directed by Isao Takahata.
Featuring the voices of Aki Asakura, Kengo Kora, Takeo Chii and Nobuko Miyammoto Japanese with subtitles. 137 mins
With Miyazaki retiring, Isao Takahata had briefly assumed the role of Studio Ghibli top man, but now he's retired too. His last work arrives under the cloud of being one of the five animated films that have “robbed” The Lego Movie of it Oscar nomination. It deserves better than that though I can imagine the casual moviegoer being a little perplexed that this quite basic and rather long-winded hand drawn tale based on an old Japanese fairy tale should be deemed superior to a piece with Batman, Will Ferrell and building blocks.
With Miyazaki you always knew what you were going to get visually but Takahata varies his styles. While Grave of the Fireflies was in the traditional Ghibli style, My Neighbours The Yamadas was like a cartoonist's sketchbook brought to life. Princess Kaguya is pitched between them. It's quite basic hand drawn animation, without the watercolour lushness we usually associated with Ghibli; the characters aren't detailed and sometimes it doesn't bother to colour in all the frame, and the edges are left blank.
It's rudimentary but, at times, fantastically effective. At the start a childless bamboo cutter comes across a tiny hold-in-your-hand princess in a magic bamboo stalk. When he takes her home she becomes a baby and they love her like her own. These scenes are magically effective, the simplicity of the technique perfectly expresses the simple but overwhelming love they have for this child. It's not photo-realism but it is lifelike and it's the most moving piece of animation since the first 10 minutes of Up.
The child grows up at a supernatural speed, becomes an unhappy princess in the city, so beautiful that suitors come from all over to woo her and from there the story becomes a rather dry parable about misguided parenting and not needing material goods. It's like a children's film from the era when children's films weren't supposed to be fun. Which is fine but it does go on a bit and there is something a bit prim and precious about the basic animation – it telling Stop, Look Traditional Craftsman At Work.
This Japanese fairy tale has some universal themes but it is also a slightly impenetrable to western audiences. There has been a creeping conservatism in recent Ghibli films and this could be emblematic of Studio Ghibli seeming to turn its back to the west. Let's hope not.
