Little Norse Prince [DVD] [1968]

A landmark in the history of anime cinema, this film is a re-working of an oriental legend into a norse tale. It follows the story of a young boy called Hols, charting his acceptance into a fishing village and his battle against the demon Grunwald who killed his father.
Of course, being much older than films such as Spirited Away, the animation is much more primitive; yet even when one scene is reduced to being played out by a sequence of stills, the film loses none of its power. This is down to the believable and complex characters (the amiguous Hilda and the scheming chief's assistant being two good examples) , the majestic musical score and its epic theme of teamwork and honesty overcoming a seemingly unstoppable evil..... and, of course, a good old-fashioned adventure through spectacular landscapes. Even minor characters are unique and developed, creating empathy for the plight of the villagers and the designs of monsters and buildings is flawless throughout.
The film has a warmth which belies its age and can be enjoyed on so many different levels - as a historic piece of art, as a brilliant story, as a commentary on a time and on people in general. As such it is a timeless classic, completely enjoyable by all ages and i heartily recommend it.

Well, I say it shows its age, but I'm not really sure it does. It certainly looks a lot older than the other Ghibli films I have seen, but then it *is* a lot older than them, pre-dating Nausicaa Valley Of The Wind by a massive 16 years, and My Neighbour Totoro by *twenty years* - this film is almost 40 years old now!

When you consider that, then it really is actually amazing how little it has aged. OK, the animation is quite primitive in places, with big fight/battle scenes consisting of just panning round still images - but with the added sound effects, this still works remarkably well, and gives a good sense of the energy of the scenes.

Regardless of the animation, and how dated it does look, this is actually a very enjoyable tale. Its set in a world that is less magical than those of Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle, and very much has the feel of the worlds of Nordic legends. As ever with Ghibli Films, the world feels believable and you become captivated by it and the story.

This film tells a story in a much more traditional sense than other Ghibli films, and you can easily see this being a story that was passed down through the ages, told from parent to child, like many traditional legends. It's possibly also more suitable for younger children than some Ghibli films, as the story is less complex and easier to follow (due to the more traditional style of the story, and story telling); however, some of the scenes could frighten some children (though it's never as scary as Watership Down - it is scary in a similar way). If your children like legends or traditional fairy tales, then they would probably enjoy this film.

Taiyô no Ôji Horusu no Daibôken (literally The Sun Prince Hols' Great Adventure) is the earliest Japanese animation to be released here by over a decade, which alone is bound to give it at least some novelty value. Being the very first to curve away from children and towards a young adult audience leaves it with a mixture of action and drama with the big musical numbers and naďve visual humour which we would associate with western cartoons. Quality is assured with the presence of Studio Ghibli founders Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao as director and key animator respectively. The fantastical, myth-like story and setting (a fusion of northern Japan and Scandinavia) are certainly more akin to Miyazaki's films, though here they're treated with Takahata's characteristic objectivity and some political themes, more explicit than in their later work but still not the whole point of it. The nearest to it I could think of at the time I first watched it was Disney's Brother Bear, and there's evidence, even if it's more tenuous, that it could have been influenced by this as The Lion King was by Kimba the White Lion. The ending of Kirikou and the Sorceress also felt strongly reminiscent the dramatic encounters in this. But I prefer Hols over either those for its sense, almost smell, of folklore and "fushigi."

To be honest both the moral ("Co-operation is good!") and treachery-based plot are almost unbearably familiar today but the presentation manages to make it worth watching. Glaciated peaks, powdery snow and in particular the foam of turbulent streams (which I doubt has ever been done as well as it is here) are all lovingly detailed; voice acting is good even by Japanese standards and the music is rarely spectacular, but it's enjoyable and there's plenty of it. Most of all, there's this rare, strange to point of enchanting sense of melancholy permeating throughout much of the film, offset with scenes of scenes of ecstatic jubilation and Unfortunately the character designs are mostly unimaginative and don't go well with each other, but there are a few in the pleasingly simple style which was used in recent Legend of Zelda games. The only real problem is in the DVD treatment - it's sub-only, which is better than dub-only but restricts its appeal to younger viewers, and none of the songs appear in the subtitles. The lyrics aren't essential to the story but they add a beauty and emotion to it which has now been denied from the English-language audience. The also inconsistencies in the translation of honorifics and, as friend more knowledgeable in Japanese than I noticed, at least one outright mistake in the translation. Similarly the only extras are trailers for Hols and two other films (and badly damaged, unrestored transfers of them at that) which is not much but better than nothing. Some will also be put off by two sequences of stills with only sound effects, but there is generally much more background animation than is normally found in anime and this gives it considerable re-watching potential.

If this film had a better transfer, full and accurate subtitles and perhaps a little more in the way of extras, it would have got 5 stars. As it is, the weaknesses of the release bring it down by 2, and while I'd still recommend it for fellow fans of folklore and older animation, I don't consider it "great" enough by objective standards to still be 5-star material despite these significant drawbacks. If you liked this, I'd recommend the films "Fantastic Planet" (French animation) and "Raise the Red Lantern" (Chinese live-action) as well as the more obvious comparisons to Miyazaki's "Laputa" and "Princess Mononoke," with the same applying the other way round if you've seen any of those. Though differing greatly in subject and visual style, there's some feeling which unites them, something like ancient folklore mixing with the real and immediate.