ANI-MOVIES, *Panda And The Magic Serpent

The White Snake Enchantress was the first feature-length anime movie done entirely in color as well as Toei Animation's premiere motion picture in 1958. It was released in America under the title Panda And The Magic Serpent with one of the most questionable English dubs of all time. Even though it was a Japanese production, the original source material was inspired by one of China's Four Great Folktales which has traditionally been used as the inspiration for various operas, plus as a live-action movie by Toho two years prior to the anime. The tale has been retold so many times that it's difficult to say whether or not there is an actual antagonist in it or just a supernatural love story as it became more romanticized over the years. Panda And The Magic Serpent was officially the first anime movie to be shown in American theaters within months of two other releases, Magic Boy plus Alakazam The Great, and the dub had abnormal dialogue inserted into it with scenes sometime just using the Japanese language track while also keeping the music numbers undubbed with only the narrator translating what the lyrics were saying in a truly routine manner, which considering the original film had a cast made entirety of two actors, it becomes understandable how unprepared America was for formatting anime to English audiences, especially with the rushed pacing. A great chunk of the movie is either funny animal schtick or the two main leads fawning over each other, and the dub gives such a rapid exposition that's it's hard to clarify the plot.

Xu Xian is a young man who as a boy had a white snake for a pet. Years later, the snake is transformed into a human named Bai-Niang with miraculous powers who along with her fish-turned-lady-in-waiting Xiaoqing try to win the favor of her former owner. Xu Xian and Bai-Niang try to establish their relationship, but because of the hijinks of Xu Xian's panda and red panda sidekicks he ends imprisoned for looting the main treasury. A monk mistakes Bai-Niang for being an evil spirit, so he tries to cast her away only for her to renounce her immortality and powers to gain the Flower of Life to save Xu Xian. After some epic magical showdowns and help from the panda and his newly acquired street gang, the monk realizes that Bai-Niang is benevolent who reunites with Xu Xian making for a happy ending.

The movie's director Taiji Yabushita went on to helm several Toei animated films, and Americans will recognize the western influences in his style, especially with the anthropomorphic antics of the animal characters. Most other adaptations of The White Snake legend had a better grasp on the mythological lore whereas this anime version suffers from filling out the run time to over an hour long. If you consider yourself a pioneer in anime then Panda And The Magic Serpent is largely mandatory, although aside from its cemented place in history the film isn't a mainstay for standard otaku.

*ANI-MOVIES, *The Princess And The Goblin

Even though there had already been a segment of Fractured Fairy Tales that covered the George Macdonald's novel The Princess And The Goblin, Hungarian director Jozsef Gemes and his Pannonia Film Studio did their own feature-length animated movie in 1991 produced by Welsh TV network S4C making it the first ever cartoon movie done in Wales. It got a British dub in 1992 which fit in as Disney's renaissance was chugging on well giving it some leeway since it was a princess fairy tale. The film didn't fair to well in American theaters since it was released at the same time as The Lion King and only got a minimum amount of praise because they gave away a free phone card for kids to use in an emergency. The animation for the early 90s is mildly conspicuous, but nothing all that breathtaking except possibly the unique backgrounds. The main selling point was the English cast with the late comedian Rik Mayall playing the titular goblin, although if you're a regular of British animation, you'll notice it's pretty much a copy of David Jason's original incarnation of Count Duckula with a Daffy Duck lisp, so it's sort of a waist of Mayall's talent.

Taking place in a castle near a mountain mine, Princess Irene gets lost from her guardian and cornered by some dark creatures only to be saved by the miner boy Curdie who scares the monsters away with singing. Curdie finds out there are goblins living underground near the mines and are planning on flooding them out. The goblin prince Froglip wants to capture Irene and make her his bride to get back at humans for forcing them underground years ago for not being nice, but Curdie is imprisoned by the goblins when they find him. Irene gets some help from the spirit of her great-great-grandmother who she was named after and receives a magic ring which will lead her to free Curdie due to an invisible thread. The goblins attack the castle leaving Curdie to save Irene from Froglip just as the flood intended for the mines ends up a wrecking most of the castle instead which washes all the goblins away.

The Princess And The Goblin is a serviceable movie for children with decent storytelling, just not all that gripping. The design and strange antics of the goblins are jovial enough going the route that you might not see in your average Looney Tunes, although it seems some of the animators had a bizarre fetish for the loathsome goblin queen who is the fiercest fighter out of the whole lot. There are times especially near the end when you can tell the quality of animation was slipping possibly because of budget issues. You're not really missing out on giving this particular movie a pass, so don't worry if you can't find a copy of the old VHS or the DVD release as its not regularly available on streaming.

ANI-MOVIES, *Rock & Rule

For the first full-length movie from the now defunct Nelvana Studios, the adult animated production of Rock And Rule was actually inspired from a TV short they created in 1978 titled The Devil And Daniel Mouse based on the Stephen Vincent Benet story. Clive Smith directed the original short as well as the big budget remake which premiered in 1983, even though they turned down working on the more controversial movie Heavy Metal to make their own animated rock opera. The 80s were a different time for animation as before most studios went on to making TV shows based on toys, and Disney itself was struggling to keep itself afloat as their renaissance was still a few years off, so Nelvana trying to create a mature animated production with a rock-themed soundtrack was a serious stretch for anybody at that point, even with an 8 million dollar budget. The studio was first owned by United Artists which was later incorporated into MGM who greatly receded Rock And Rule's release which led it to becoming a huge flop in theaters. MGM also reformatted the American release that added to its disappointing turnout, although the original widescreen version done for Canada was burned in a fire making the intended edition of this lost to time. MGM also added new scenes to the film along with a narrated opening crawl which made the edit chopped to pieces. Most people would remember this as being one of those bizarre films you would catch on rotation on HBO sometime on a late weekend night, but this helped the movie get enough traction for animation fans to make it a cult classic. Nelvana put a huge effort into this production helmed by their team of over 300 animators, despite the false rumors that some former legendary Disney animators worked on it and that Ralph Bakshi was also somehow involved, although the movie featured the best of the studio's fluid animation which helped them gain the respect of George Lucus as they went on to work on the first animated Star Wars productions. The main draw for the movie was the musicians that were signed to provide the soundtrack such as Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop which helped make some of the music numbers seem like their own 80s music video. The cast was split up into having some actors for the Canadian version only to have them being replaced in the American dub, but the best of them all was the main villain performed by Don Francks who most will know as the original voice of Boba Fett and the first Sabretooth from the X-Men 90s series, plus there was also a small appearance by Catherine O'Hara. All the work Nelvana put into this was flushed away due to MGM's meddling, however the movie did manage to gain a new audience with its various physical releases including VHS, LD, DVD, and Blu-Ray.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth where all the humans were killed off in a nuclear war and the rodents evolved to take their place, Mok is the most popular singer in the world with a reputation for using actual magic in his acts, but since some of his last few concerts weren't completely sold out. Like all disgruntled rock stars, instead of going into a drug-induced depression, Mok decides to summon a demon from another dimension to become popular again. The only way to achieve this was with a special voice, so Mok goes all over the globe looking for one, but only when he gets back to his home of Ohmtown does he find the voice in a local girl named Angel who is part of a 4-player band including her rowdy boyfriend, Omar. Angel is not willing to join Mok without the rest of her band, so Mok and his trio of goons kidnap her and take her to do a concert in New York, now called Nuke York. Omar and the rest of the band go to get her but fail, and Angel is forced to try and summon the demon. Fortunately, the demon wasn't able to manifest because of insufficient power which there is an abundancy of back in Ohmtown. Mok sets up another concert and manages to conjure up the demon, but the combined power of Angel and Omar's voices send the demon and Mok back into the darkness.

Rock And Rule broke conventional animation film standards for having even greater quality that most of the Disney movies of that era and was one of the first ones to incorporate computer animation as well. MGM's negligence in holding back promoting the movie really bit Nelvana's streak which up until then was known mostly for animated holiday specials. There was also no wide release of the movie soundtrack which is the one thing that kept Heavy Metal from its initial obscurity, even though there was a good comic book adaptation by Marvel. Rock And Rule is a trippy psychedelic ride with memorable songs and shooting from the hip humor that will leave a solid groove in your mind.

ANI-MOVIES, *Junkers Come Here

An all-ages anime movie from 1995, Junkers Come Here was a Bandai production that wasn't put out in America until 2003. Director Junichi Sato worked on this after he did the first season of the original Sailor Moon anime series. The screenplay was written by Naoto Kine who is a musician in the new wave band TM Network and based on a series that books he wrote that were eventually turned into a manga plus this anime adaptation. It is a fresh idea about a girl with a talking dog, although that's nothing to unusual for American audiences who grew up on Hanna-Barbera, however this is more a family drama as it contends with divorce and coming-of-age.

Hiromi is a troubled 11-year-old Japanese girl whose parents are always separated by their careers, although she is fortunate enough to have quirky housekeeper plus a live-in tutor, a handsome young man named Keisuke who Hiromi has a crush on. Hiromi's other salvation is her dog Junkers which is pronounced "Yoon-kers" who for some unexplained reason can talk. The audience is never given any backstory about Hiromi first found out about her pet's extraordinary ability, so we're just expected to just go with it as talking dogs are not a natural occurrence in this world. Junkers abilities seem to go even beyond talking as he claims he can grant three wishes, and whether or not this is all in Hiromi's head is up to the viewer to interpret. Hiromi's parents are talking about getting a divorce because of their conflicting schedules, so how she takes advantage of Junkers' wish-granting plays out as to the authenticity of any fantasy elements are seriously in question.

Junkers Come Here has gorgeously fluid animation with bright backgrounds, and there's even a bit near the end which appears to be heavily inspired by The Snowman. The storytelling is very slice-of-life with some supernatural spice thrown in for good measure. The dub is subpar even with Light Yagami himself, Brad Swaile, playing Keisuke, and most of the rest of the cast giving watered down performances. The movie has been released DVD by Bandai Entertainment and is available on streaming, so this would make for a somewhat charming watch for the whole family even if it's not as memorable as your average Studio Ghibli feature.

Frieren: The Story So Far

Elves in anime are not uncommon. Ever since we met the high elf Deedlit in Record Of Lodoss War, elves have been a staple in various fantasy titles, usually isekai. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End on the other hand is a genuine high fantasy with no otherworldly reincarnations or portal fiascos. Based on a manga written by Kanehito Yamada and drawn by Tsukasa Abe, Frieren focuses on a thousand-year-old elf who is one of the last of four heroes that embarked on a decade-long quest to defeat the standard demon king, who here is actually called The Demon King. The pitch is how a long-living elf gets by in the world as an obscure mage who most people have forgotten about from her past adventures, despite the fact that elves are slowly going extinct on this mystical continent and there aren’t that many other elves around to confuse her with.

An anime based on this came out in 2023 with the first season of this show going on for 28 episodes which is a few episodes longer than most first seasons. The second season recently premiered with as much buzz behind it as the previous one. The fandom that the show has developed is strong, although there is a grand deal of resistance from those who tried to talk their anime friends into it.

The most divisive thing about the series is that there is a large amount of wandering around in the first season which is what made a lot of Star Wars fans from bothering with Lord Of The Rings. After the elderly death of the heroes’ party leader Himmel, Frieren is trying to find a new purpose in her life when she’s not looking for lost grimoires to pick up new spells to help make everyday life a little easier. Many newcomers might think of the anime as being a slice of life story that happens to take place in a Dungeons And Dragons world, but if they bothered to get through the entire first season they would see there is some deep lore and character development.

World building could also be a contributing factor as to why some otaku were put off by it. There is an inordinate number of flashbacks to Frieren’s original party during their crusade, even more flashbacks than in an episode of Kung Fu. Plus, every, and I mean every character has a backstory which is fine for the regulars but for the ones that show up the one time or are just passing though, it gets more than a little repetitive. The anime is a slow burn, however if the first season is extended by several episodes and concludes with a self-contained story arc, then the patients of the average viewer are seriously tested.

The main plot has Frieren running into the last surviving members of her party, the occasionally sober priest Heiter and the sturdy dwarf Eisen, each of which has their own protege that Frieren adds to her company. She first becomes the mage teacher of Fern who is a purple-haired girl that Heiter adopted and spends a few years training in her own particular brand of folk magic. The second one to join them is Stark, Eisen’s former pupil who is a nervous but ultimately strong warrior. The trio go from the southern part of their continent to the north where the souls of the dead are said to be and Frieren hopes to see Himmel’s spirit. The problem is that this is the area originally ruled by the slayed Demon King whose forces are running amok vying for whatever territory or power they can seize, and on top of that they need to have a first class mage to proceed there, so Frieren and Fern have to spend many episodes just trying to pass improbable tests while competing against other mages also hoping to gain a license.

Along the way they run into various strangers, Frieren’s former acquaintances, and the occasional but temporary additions to their party. Taking into account all of these character’s origin stories and the bountiful flashback, the story does tend to drag on at points. Even some of the characters who show up briefly during the school test saga that we got to know the personal history of are immediately dismissed away by the judgmental elf Serie leaving you to wonder what the point of was getting to know them at all. Remember though that the series is ongoing and they might show up again to take part in some future chapter, like the only male elf Kraft briefly making a few scant scenes whose acts with another human helped motivate additional party member Sein into become an adventurer more than likely has a larger role to play in an upcoming scenario. Considering that this story spans decades, there’s also room to transform guest characters into part of the full-time cast.

As far as the quality of the show itself is concerned, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End does have consistently good 2D animation with only the occasional use of CGI. Madhouse is the studio behind the anime’s beautiful aesthetics, and this really comes through during the occasional boss battle. Season 1 director Keiichiro Saito had already proved his mettle when he did Bocchi The Rock and presented this initial installment as a revolutionary step up for a contemporary fantasy series. The soundtrack by Evan Call is also noteworthy.

The anime has customary dangling plot threads like if Fern and Stark will couple up, Frieren possibly embracing her status as the highest level mage in the land and actually stop being a big sleepyhead, Sein eventually meeting up with his old friend, where the mage exam’s winners and losers will end up, and what probable lurking evil is waiting for the party of heroes once they reach the Demon King’s castle. Like Frieren’s sturdy luggage, this anime is intended to last quite a while, although hopefully not as in an endless saga like One Piece which episode count has gone past 1000. Keep in mind that the story is still a work in progress, so as a wise wizard might’ve paraphrased, “There is no journey’s end because nothing ever ends.”

ANI-MOVIES, *The King And The Mockingbird

Similar to The Thief And The Cobbler, The King And The Mockingbird was an animated film that went unfinished for decades. Initially based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Shepherdess And The Chimney Sweep, director Paul Grimault began production of this in France in 1948, but within a few years the funds dried up, so an incomplete version of the film was released in 50s. For the next two decades Grimault was able secure ownership of the movie and add on to it along with most of his original animation crew so he would have his film fully realized and premiered it in theaters in 1980. For a production that was stretched out over generations, you can see some of the early days of cartoons influence put into it, over time however it became more distinct and hallucinatory. The movie became so well regarded that some of the founders of Studio Ghibli were inspired by it, although it didn't hurt at all that there was a huge mecha in it too. The King And The Mockingbird hasn't been given an English dub as of yet, but there was one of the incomplete edition released in 1957 under the title The Curious Adventures Of Mr. Wonderbird with Sir Peter Ustinov giving another melodramatic performance as the titular bird, and this version is in the public domain for all to enjoy.

A progressive modern kingdom is ruled over by the serendipitously named King Charles who is a tyrant that locks his unwanted subjects in a city underneath the palace and hastily dispatches any who defy him in one of the hundreds of conveniently-place trap doors he had built all over the place. One night, a painting of the King comes to life and sends King Charles down a trap never to be seen again, and the new false King takes his place as he is lusting after a beautiful shepherdess who left her own painting along with her lover, a young chimney sweep. Meanwhile, Mr. Wonderbird has a vendetta against the original king for shooting the mother of his children, so the large talking bird uses his wisdom and charismatic speaking into helping the couple escape along with the rest of the kingdom's people. The fact that the King has an entire menagerie of amusing toys to stop all who oppose him including a giant robot and cronies with working bat-winged flying suits doesn't help the innocent heroes from living under the fake King's thumb, but Wonderbird manages to gain control of the mechanized monstrosity and uses it to destroy the castle with all the former subject including the living painting couple forming a quaint new village for themselves.

The King And The Mockingbird has a surrealistic vision to it where we get to see much of the world building than we do of the characters. The beautiful craftsmanship that went into the character designs which their body language combined with the superb fairy tale backdrop blends together for a complete package considering that the film took longer to complete than nearly any other animated production. The mixing of cartoon physics of illustrations coming to life and bringing the downfall of an evil empire with advanced technology makes this one of the few fairypunk genre films ever made.

ANI-MOVIES: *Ultraman: The Adventure Begins

You might've seen Netflix's recent reboot of the Tsuburaya Productions' tokusatsu franchise, but the first time the Ultra Series was specifically animated for English audiences was in 1987 in a combined project between them and Hanna-Barbera of all people. Ultraman: The Adventure Begins was the second attempt to remake Ultraman for foreign audiences after a live-action film was made for Thailand in the 70s that created an entire licensing fiasco, but for Tsuburaya's first animation they made for outside Japan it was done by Ashi Productions and Studio Sign in a feature-length movie that was supposed to be the pilot for a TV series, although it never got picked up and the movie only got a limited release on VHS in the 90s. Recently, Mill Creek Entertainment had a Blu-Ray release of the film, but with a whole new English dub. The original dub included an all-star cast including Adrienne Barbeau and Stacy Keach Sr. along with regular animated voice actors from the 80s like Charles Adler and William Callaway. Mill Creek's release of the film has standard modern actors such as Kellen Goff and Caitlan Glass, plus for some reason there are no subtitles on the Japanese track of the Blu-Ray with no closed captioning. Originally titled in Japan as Ultraman USA, the film didn't even get released there until two years after its American premiere, but copies of it did include the first English dub, so there appears to be some sort of licensing kerfuffle between Mill Creek and Tsuburaya.

Taking place in a somewhat advanced version of the 80s similar to what you would see on GI Joe, three stunt pilots all survive an air crash caused by a spontaneous burst of light. They then get a call to come to a golf club in Georgia which is secretly the headquarters of a groundskeeper who somehow has ties to benevolent aliens and tells the pilots that they're no bonded with superpowered giants that appear when big monsters are around. Conveniently, three giant monsters happen to be running amok all over America, so the newly dubbed Ultra Force (no relation to the Malibu Comics series of the same name) take off from their new base set in Mount Rushmore with Lincoln's mouth acting as a runway. One of the monsters is a botanical nightmare while the other is an electrical abomination that the Ultra Force defeats. The last of the three monsters is really just a baby hippo-like dinosaur that the Ultra-Force send off to a peaceful planet. However, one other monster appears which begins to keep evolving every few minutes and attacks New York, which might have explained why this movie was in limbo for years as the World Trade Center is featured prominently during the kaiju rampage. The Ultra Force turn into their giant silver forms to stop the monster which gets new superpowers including phasing and cloaking until the only way to stop the kaiju is to quickly drop it into the sun before it grows to being the size of a planet. There's the hint of possible more adventures for the Ultra Force, but this was all she wrote as far as a sprawling space opera.

Tsuburaya's franchise has had better success in Japan with its various releases in English, even though most people might confuse Ultraman with SSSS Gridman which has similar character designs. The American-designed production had some prime animation incorporated into it and the Blu-Ray was given a quality release for an anime forty years old, although you're better off catching this on streaming since Mill Creek botched the hard copy, but make sure you get a bootleg Ultra Force t-shirt.