Research 17 - The Tale of Princess Kaguya

My main reason for liking thus movie is how it was animated  which i will go into detail on in a moment. The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a japanese fairy tale about a small child that is found by a bamboo cutter once he cuts into a bamboo he was chopping. He runs back with the child to his wife to show her when the child grows abruptly into a small baby. The couple wonder where she came from and then went on to find some one to breast feed her but the woman then found her self able to produce breast milk and so went about feeding the child and caring for it as there own. The child grew quickly, being able to walk in just a couple of days able to talk and run around with all the other children of the village. She continues to grow to be about 8 when her father cuts more bamboo and finds gold in one and priceless robes in another, he took as a sign that their little girl, whom he village boys had called little bamboo, because of how fast she grew, was destined for much greater things. So taking the family away from the village and to the city they bought a massive castle for her to live in. She was also given a proper name, Kaguya, to mimic her beauty. However Kaguya did not like being away from the village, nor did she want arranged marriages or royal robes and loftily halls. she only wanted to be with her friends and to be able to play in the forest once again.

The art for the animation is made up of an old fashioned japanese drawing style, more closely based upon the old japanese wood blocks and less animesque. The lines are scratch and violent in some scenes and smooth and flowing in others. Its a really nice way to present the mood of the animation. Its really interesting to see the Ghibli art style in this muted white world of water colours.

The animation is a beautiful piece of art to behold it makes me want to try and do some traditional animation in the near future (hand drawn not digital). The scratchy lines leave an effect that makes the animation so much more appealing than if it was domelike a regular Ghibli film.