Taiyo no oji: Horusu no daiboken (1968)

Director:

Isao Takahata

Writer:

Kazuo Fukazawa (writer)

Release Date:

21 July 1968 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Fantasy | Family | Action | Adventure | Drama

Plot:

Horus, a kid living in a unnamed Scandinavian/Eastern Europe culture of the Iron Age, recovers the Sword...

Plot Keywords:

Sword | Demon | Giant | Utopia Quest | Axe

Cast

Yukari Asai	...	Coro the Bear
Mikijiro Hira	...	Grunwald the Demon of Ice (voice)
Etsuko Ichihara	...	Hilda (voice)
Gilbert Mack	...	Voices
Masao Mishima	...	Village Leader
Hisako Ôkata	...	Hols (voice)
Corinne Orr	...	English dubbed version
Ray Owens	...	Voices
Eijirô Tôno	...	Ganko
Billie Lou Watt	...	Prince
Hisashi Yokomori	...	Horu's Father / Toto
Tadashi Yokouchi	...	Paul / Moog the Rock Giant

Also Known As:

Little Norse Prince (USA) (TV title)
Prince of the Sun: The Great Adventure of Horus

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U | Portugal:M/6

Company:

Toei Doga

Trivia:

The production was ridden with problems, mainly due to the difficult union relationships between the artists and the company Toei Doga. The movie was released far beyond schedule, and kept in the theaters only for 10 days. Because of this, it bombed, and Takahata never directed for Toei again. However, the movie became immediately an underground hit among students and young anime artists, and is now widely considered the first modern anime.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Grunwald is holding Hols' rope on the icy cliff, you can see his gloves change color from black to blue to black again.

Quotes:

Hilda: [sings] In the twilight red sky / a lonely star shines / Someone calls me, / "Come away, voiceless lark / Come away, wingless lark / From where did you come? And where will you go, now?"

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hana to Arisu (2004)

Very good anime, for its time

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.