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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