Horus, prince du soleil

I can only imagine how hard it was to do an animation such as this in 1968. At the time Disney was doing Mickey Mouse animation (the squeaky voice ones) and Yellow Submarine was released.

However, as in most Isao Takahata animes the focus is not on the animation, but on the script. People battle against the forces of evil using their most powerful weapon: will power. Evil comes in the form of bad luck, misfortune, direct attacks and sneaky social manipulation. Good's champion is a boy that has come to fulfill his dying father's last wish. You can find love, betrayal, anger, violence, marital ceremonies, friendship, all the hallmarks of good Japanese anime.

OK, the animation is not great. There are whole scenes of static images that are filmed , for example. Also, there is a plague that Disney is just now getting rid of, the plague of group songs in the middle of the film. But there are a lot of good things that overcome by far the bad parts. It's like a battle of good versus evil in its own :)

Doesn't hurt to mention Hayao Miyazaki, which is humbly placed somewhere in the middle of the crew list, as an animator and scene designer. As far as I know this is his first work, but you already find a lot of elements that will appear in all his work from then on.

Any anime fanatic must watch this. Children or very young people might get slightly bored.

Before My Neighbors the Yamadas, before Pom Poko, before Only Yesterday, and before Grave of the Fireflies. There was Little Prince Horus(USA Title). This was the first Movie Isao Takahata directed.

He and legendary Anime maker Hayao Miyazaki and some other animators who were still in their early years in animation industries made this film possible.

It's nothing like Isao Takahata's other works. This one is about an Alternate Viking/Scandinavian Time Period about a boy named Horus who receives a sword from some Earth God, and is sent on a quest to defeat an Ice Demon(who's pretty cool looking) meets a group of village locals and a mysterious Girl who has the key to restoring peace to the land.

It took 3 years for this film to be made. Animation is well done even if this was made 38 years ago. Back when Anime was still primitive. It's interesting to watch. Too bad it didn't do well when it was in Japanese Theatures. But what's cool about it is it became known as the earliest forms of modern anime.

In other words it's anime that doesn't have to be made for kids to watch.

I'm not sure when it'll get licensed to get it's own English Debut. But worth seeing for those who are interested in Animes that broke the rules. I'd recommend this film for Ages 12 and up contains cartoon violence and a split second of nudity.

With so much anime coming to the States in DVD, I don't know why this great film (possibly my first animated foreign film) hasn't recieved greater acclaim.

I love the music to this film, I love the storyline, and the multi-faceted characters. I wish some studio would get on the ball, and get this a bit more attention.

It's a great film. And a great intro to anime before there was "anime."

Sincerely,

JThree

carolyn@dia.net

excerpt, more at my location - Developed and created in 1968, Isao Takahata's first feature-length outing fuses Japanese and Norse philosophies and mythologies into the charmingly grown-up children's tale that is The Little Norse Prince.

While the impact of The Little Norse Prince resonates even in today's modern anime, as an individual film, it is a triumphant hallmark of sublime animation and an adult story with genuine heart, warmth, danger and menace that the talking squirrels of Disney's preceding '60s sword film (The Sword In The Stone) could only dream of achieving.

The originality that The Little Norse Prince exudes is nothing short of impressive, as his anti-aging formula transports us back in time to makes us feel young and vulnerable. While it may not be the greatest anime of all time, it is nothing short of being the most important.

This was one of the first movies that legends Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata worked on, and probably the first movie that suggested animation might be more than just for children. I understand a copy of the video is not easy to find. I was lucky enough to see it at Anime Society last night at the local university.

The film is important for its place in anime history. As a story, it's slightly weak (there are several subplots that didn't quite seem to fit), but nevertheless very enjoyable. This was partly due to the fact that the fansub I watched was, um...rather poorly translated, and some of the subtitles caused me to break into fits of hilarity. The animation itself seems mediocre nowadays, but must have been exceptional for the time. There's a slightly Disney look to it, but the anime style is definitely there...and the film is much darker than anything Disney could come up with. I mean, there's an Ice Demon whose dream is to kill everyone in the world. ! I'm thinking also of the part when Hilda's squirrel companion says something like, "But Hilda, if you save this girl she will live a life of rejection and hatred! Just like your whole life has been!" (That's nowhere near an exact quotation, but it's as close as I can remember.) And then there's the scene when Horus enters the Forest of Delusion...

It's fun to see the early development of Takahata and Miyazaki. You can see ideas just forming that would manifest in their later films. The film in itself is quite good, and in fact one of the better anime (animes?) I've seen. [Certainly it was better than the other feature at Anime Society that night, an inexplicable, boring, badly animated mess about a detective who is his own client and airplanes turning into fish and a two-year-old who is God...no, I didn't get it either.]

In conclusion, if you ever get the chance to see "Horus, Prince of the Sun", don't hesitate. I just wish there was a way I could see it again...