The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
The story comes from a 10th century Japanese folktale and the lush, water-color-like animation harkens back to a simpler era from the 20th century. Regardless, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is one of the 21st century’s most enchanting animated films, simultaneously meditative and mischievous. It also marks the swan song of one of cinema’s great animators, Isao Takahata (best known for Grave of the Fireflies).
The tale is about a little girl that springs from a bamboo shoot and blossoms into a grown woman at a rapid speed. Raised by a woodcutter and his wife, Kaguya relocates to the big city, where she draws the eye of various suitors. However, as she deals with isolation and sadness, Kaguya tries to figure out how to use her realm of power to get the freedom she really wants.
Just like The Wind Rises, this exceptionally vivid, poignant film may be too sober and unappealing to take home an Animated Feature Oscar, but it probably deserves to more than any other title this year. With muted colors giving way to bold, expressionistic sequences that are haunting and elegiac, this is a story told with precision as well as ambition. The few spots of bother come courtesy of the source material, with flights of fancy that are sometimes a bit much to expect. However, the deeply poignant story matched with dreamy, imaginative animation is well worth one’s time, especially if you are not in the mood for another CGI hoopla.