Review by C.J. Bunce
Three extraordinary elements make director Ikao Takahata’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya a modern classic. The artwork is a combination of two distinct styles, beautiful backgrounds in watercolor showing nature’s splendor, and cute and quirky sketch-like characters revealing their story in the foreground, joined together to bring the fairy tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter to life on film. The last component is the music by Joe Hisaishi– sweet and lovely, it’s the kind of programmatic music that accompanied many a rhyme, poem, or fable adapted via multi-media to slide presentations when I was young. It evokes the feeling of a Prokofiev score.
You can see the film back in theaters as part of Studio Ghibli’s 2024 Fathom Events screenings. It’s also streaming on Max, and available now in a commemorative book, the The Tale of the Princess Kaguya Picture Book, available here at VIZ Media and here at Amazon, and one of the best books on the animation process we’ve reviewed at borg, The Art of The Tale of Princess Kaguya, available here at VIZ Media and here at Amazon.
Kids grow up fast, but none as quickly as young Princess Kaguya. Her father discovers her as a girl the size of a doll he can hold in his hands as he is out chopping bamboo one day. Like so many tales of an old couple finding a baby to raise, this is similar to the peach pit baby and so many other folk tales from Japan and elsewhere. But the girl quickly turns into a baby and sprouts up like a bamboo shoot into a little girl and soon a young woman. The story is about a woman prized by everyone but valued only for her status. She is a Chosen One of sorts, and only too late does she and everyone around her learn that time is precious and should not be squandered on things like pomp, ceremony, and protocol.
A female narrator, a song, a soft color palette, a folk tale that could take viewers anywhere. One brief scene shows a 3D view of giant cherry trees, with blossoms falling everywhere. The image is a stunning use of animation. For fans of Studio Ghibli, this is a very different film in their catalog, but it’s as magical a journey as any other.
Readers of The Art of The Tale of the Princess Taguya will learn it was the director’s combination of artist Osamu Tanabe’s characters and Kazuo Oga’s colors and key animation for the environments, all provided by the art staff he supervised as art director. The tale adapted is one of Japan’s oldest known stories, and the artists gave the story a film worthy of its tradition. Every key environment, background, and scene is included in storyboards, thumbnail reproductions, and images from the film. Interviews with Isao Takahata, Kazuo Oga, and Osamu Tanabe provide a detailed look at the making of the film, and how modern and traditional techniques were combined, with specific discussions of key scenes. About a third of the book reproduces the tranquil scenes of nature that provided the tone for the story. The English translation is well done, conveying incredible nuance from the film’s creative staff.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya Picture Book is the next of the Studio Ghibli large-sized hardcover storybooks that make the perfect supplement, souvenir, or introduction to the films of Studio Ghibli. This volume perfectly reproduces the filmmakers’ pastoral characters and landscapes as well as screenshots of hundreds of backgrounds. As with other books in this series, it begins with an introduction of characters and concepts for young readers. And this book will help kids understand the more adult concepts of the film.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya Picture Book is a great read-along for fans of the movie, old and new. It’s available now here direct from VIZ Media and here at Amazon. The Art of The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, released in 2022 and available here at Amazon, and here at VIZ Media, is an incredible course in the making of modern animated films, and a showcase of the filmmakers’ stunning artwork. Enjoy it before or after the film, now streaming on Max. Better yet, see it in theaters as part of the Fathom Events screenings. Find times, theater locations, and order tickets now here at the Fathom Events website. The screenings run from November 25 and 27, 2024
