The Emperor's Treasure

Golden Films' output has mostly been very solid. There is the odd disappointment like Tarzan of the Apes, Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Jungle King and Anastasia. But there are also ones that I love such as Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, The Night Before Christmas and The Three Musketeers. The Emperor's Treasure is one of the solid ones. There are some things that I wasn't so crazy about. The theme song is very 80s, which didn't fit the story setting, and not very memorable. The dialogue did seem stilted at times, Omo's felt out of place sometimes and Kori's threat to Imaru when kidnapped was one of the cheesiest ways of trying to put your authority over somebody else. And Omo was annoying even for an intentionally goofy sidekick. The animation is decent though with a subtle ethereal quality to it, and the background music meshes well with the adventure genre and doesn't fall into the trap of being too overbearing or saccharine. The story is engaging with a heartwarming ending, and the love, rescue mission, adventure and spiritual elements it had were coherently incorporated with not too much emphasis on one or the other. Thomas is a likable protagonist, and Cori is beautiful and headstrong. Imaru is a villain that we've seen many times before, but he is convincing and in the climax quite threatening. The voice acting is not stellar, but apart from Omo it was decent. To conclude, pleasant though not one of my favourites from Golden Films. 7/10 Bethany Cox