O Sino de Chirin

A story about life and death and the lessons from it as well which also can cause devastating consequences.

This is a classic cartoon that anyone should avoid 'judging a book by its cover'. It looks exactly like any other cheesy Disney cartoons...but it is TOTALLY the opposite.

This 40-minute clip is one huge character development influenced by the choices in life made by a sheer little lamb, and the consequences that followed. There are other anime with equally dark/depressing themes, but this is probably one of the first few that I noticed that made it very obvious & convincing part in the latter. The unfairytale-like ending -- definitely something you won't expect from a cartoon like this -- is one such powerful testimony. Aside from the first 8 minute, the rest of the movie is very dark but true to anything anyone has to face in reality. If i have kids, I will definitely include this cartoon at the top of the 'cartoons for kids' list. Cartoons should not be meant to give kids false impression of life but instead prepare them for the real moral lessons. This anime absolutely nailed it.

A 2-D Japanese animation movie that tells the story of Chirin, a baby ram who wears a ringing bell and wants to become a wolf.

The first part of the movie is very bucolic, with Chirin is in the farm with his mother and all the sheep eating, playing and frolicking around. Chirin is the cutest thing ever. The second part of the film, in which Chirin trains to be like a wolf, is much darker in colors, sharper in lines, and darker in mood, but it is also more interesting.

The story has all the elements of traditional storytelling, in which Nature, family, social relationships, life and death are explored naturally and organically, and in which the children are expected to learn about them from an early age.

In fact, the movie is a terrific way to teach children that Nature and the natural order is what it is, despite its harshness, we like it or not, that Nature has its own logic, that you cannot change your nature without becoming lost and isolated -an outcast. It also shows that all natural creatures have a right to live, and that you cannot consider one good and the other bad, as even the bad ones have their reasons to behave the way they do. Finally, the movie shows that resentment can harm and ruin your life.

To modern standards and moronic treatment of children, this could be considered an adult movie. The thing is, no child is going to like the end and is going to cry through, but with the parents by his/her side, he/she will learn an important lesson in life.

The animation is simple but very cute, with an adorable drawing of Chirin and of all animals, except for the wolf and other fierce animals, which are, of course, ugly and frightening. What is more, the animation reminded me of Disney, old-Disney, especially of Bambi, to which Ringing Bell relates both in the drawing style and in the message conveyed.

The movie just lasts 47 minutes.

*** SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***

I own this wonderful movie, one film of many that I am proud of. Basically, the plot of the film short is based on a baby lamb named Chirin, a playful and curious lamb who goes just beyond the safe boundaries of the paddock fence he lives in one day and is scolded by his mother. He also wears a bell around his neck to keep him out of danger. (Think "Bambi") Well, one night the wolf that Chirin's mother kept warning him about that lives on the mountain outside the fence comes to their farm and invades the barn in which they live. (There are many sheep, not just Chirin and his mother) The wolf comes to the farm occasionally for a feast of lamb, and when he's about to pounce on and devour Chirin, his mother jumps over him to protect him. She dies. Then, Chirin, fueled by rage of his mother's death, leaves the farm in search of the wolf. He pursues the wolf, determined to be stronger in order to strike down the wolf that had killed his mother. (Yes, the very wolf Chirin wants to have train him, he also wants to kill.) Well, years pass, Chirin grows up to be a merciless killer with the wolf at his side. As partners, they ravage the land and kill all that stand in their way. As a last lesson the wolf teaches Chirin, he takes him back to the very place he had left years before to go join the wolf. He begins as if he is fearless of the thought of killing his own kind but, sees a lamb and he remembers his childhood and refuses to do it. The wolf heads in toward the barn to do it for him but, Chirin won't let him kill his past life. He charges the wolf one last time, and runs him through with his dagger-like horns. Then, even after slaying the wolf the sheep are too afraid of him to let him live with them. They lock him out and finally he realizes that without the wolf now, he is completely alone. He leaves, and later the sheep claim to hear the bell Chirin wore as a child to protect him from danger, ringing quietly in a raging blizzard. The End. It's a bit depressing but, most children would probably be too young to understand the deeper concepts the movie displays. All in all, the movie is really very good, enjoy!

in a not so conventional sense of the word.

This movie was one of my favorites as a young child, and I just recently remembered it, and thought to look it up. While many of the details are no longer clear in my mind, the overall feeling that the movie gave me has stuck with me over the years.

If parents feel that their children can handle mature and sometimes violent themes, then I highly recommend this movie. It taught me a lot about life and death, and brought forth in me a lot of emotion. To this day, it remains one of my favorite films.