Isao Takahata
Aaron Gerow
gerowaaron at sbcglobal.net
Sat Jan 31 09:43:23 EST 2004
> i was wondering if anybody on the list has some comments on takahatas
> first movie:
> THE ADVENTURES OF HOLS, PRINCE OF THE SUN ... to share?
This is a film I love a lot and use in class when I can. It is not only
a very good film, but historically quite significant. And, as I've
argued before, there's a lot of story elements in this film that you
later see in Mononoke hime.
The film is kind of legendary because it was practically a product of
the labor union at Toei, fighting not only against Toei labor policies,
but also against the extreme limited animation taking hold of the
industry at the time. Watanabe and Yamaguchi have a long section about
the struggles in _Nihon animeshon eigashi_. It's not hard to read in
the tale of a village banding together against an evil power a parable
of the labor struggle itself. It's also famous because Miyazaki had a
considerable role in creating the film, although his main credit is
just for art design. Some people have tried to relate Miyazaki to a
concept called the "animeic" (a concept I have problems with), but
given this concerted fight against limited animation, I find it hard to
argue historically for such a relation.
While the film is widely considered a masterpiece, it was one of Toei's
worst films at the box office, and that did lead to some of those
involved in the film being demoted or asked to leave. I think Takahata
was demoted at that time, but do remember he and Miyazaki left Toei in
1971, 3 years after the film was released. Also remember that Toei was
continually having labor problems, ones often tied to the issue of
fighting limited animation, and in 1972, engaged in a major
restructuring that purged many employees. Miyazaki and Takahata
probably left in part because they saw this coming.
Aaron Gerow
Film Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
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