The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Isao Takahata's The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a profound animated film.  It is joyous, sad, tender, and a marvel to watch.  At almost 80 years old, Mr. Takahata has created some of the more memorable films to come out of Studio Ghibli, Japan's leading animation studio (which he co-founded with Hayao Miyazaki), ranging from the melancholy Grave of the Fireflies, to the simple and sweet Only Yesterday.  His latest film is filled with visual beauty, and a story (based on an ancient Japanese folktale) that can be simple and complex at the same time.  This is an animated film that can easily be dubbed a masterpiece.

Right from the opening scene, we can tell that this will be an animated film like few others due to the artstyle, which is represented with soft watercolors and line drawings, giving the appearance of charcoal drawings.  An old bamboo cutter (voiced in the English dub by James Caan) is going about his work in a forest, when he suddenly witnesses a beam of light from the heavens strike the ground nearby.  A plant grows in the spot where the light hit, and within moments, the plant opens to reveal a tiny doll-like woman.  The bamboo cutter excitedly takes the tiny creature in his hands and runs off to show it to his wife (Mary Steenburgen, who also serves as the film's narrator).  Not long after that, the couple are shocked to watch as the tiny woman transforms into a human baby.  Almost from the beginning, the child seems to be growing at an accelerated rate, and within a matter of days, she is already walking and exploring the surrounding area on her own.

Her early explorations lead her to befriend a group of boys who live nearby, who also notice how quickly the girl seems to be growing, and nickname her "Little Bamboo".  Of the children, she bonds the most with the oldest boy, Sutemaru (Darren Criss), and before long she is helping him hunt, and striking a close friendship.  The local boys accept her, despite her sometimes odd behavior, such as her ability to sing a song about the nature of all living creatures, despite having no memory or knowledge of how she learned the song.  The little girl is happy in her carefree life, but her adoptive father believes she is destined for more than the simple country life, especially when another beam of light strikes down in the forest, and bestows gold and lovely garments upon him.  He takes this as a sign that his new daughter must be a princess from wherever she came from, and must be treated as such.

Using the gold, the bamboo cutter buys a castle in the capital for his family.  It is at this point that the young carefree girl is forced to leave everything she loved behind, and adapt to the lifestyle of a princess.  She is eventually given the name Kaguya, and grows into a lovely young woman (now voiced by Chloe Grace Moretz) who becomes the fascination and the envy of the entire capital, due to the stories of her magnificent beauty.  The wealthiest men in the Capital hope to win her heart, but the princess is not interested in their affections.  She longs to return to the simple life, while her father becomes so enthralled by his new life of status that he thinks his daughter wishes for the same things he longs for.  Where the story goes from there, I will not reveal, only to say that we do eventually learn where the young Kaguya came from originally, and that the film's final moments are some of the most beautiful and heartbreaking I've seen in a long time.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is a masterful film in just about every way, especially the artstyle.  Watching the film, it made me realize just how many corners are often cut in some traditional animation.  There is a realism to the movement to the characters here that we seldom see.  During the early moments, watch how the baby Kaguya moves, reacts, and grows.  It's probably the most realistic depiction of that stage of life I have ever seen.  There's also the gentle shading, colors, and even the way the insects and local animals are drawn and animated.  There is so much care and detail up on the screen, it is almost staggering at times.  And then there are the more fantasy-based elements of the film, which are treated with the same level of care, such as when raging storm clouds take the shape of dragons in the sky.  And then there is the film's final scene, which I will again not reveal, but is incredibly beautiful, both in its imagery and use of music by composer Joe Hisaishi.  When you see so many cookie cutter movies as I do, seeing something as extraordinary as this really makes you sit up and take notice.  I guarantee that you won't see a more beautiful film than this in 2014.

The film is being slowly released around the U.S. with a high quality English dub, with actors who bring plenty of emotion, and a script that honors the original dialogue.  However, if you can, try to see it in its original Japanese dialogue with subtitles.  Select theaters are showing it in this format, and although I was unable to view the subtitled version, I know it would be the best way to view the film, especially given that the film is deep with Japanese folklore and culture.  Still, the English dub is quite wonderful.  All of the actors are perfectly cast, and there are few if any moments where the dialogue seems out of synch with the mouth movements.  There are quite a few recognizable names in the dub cast, aside from Moretz, Caan and Steenburgen, which also include Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges, James Marsden and Oliver Platt.  Fortunately, the famous names don't distract from the story, and the movie never becomes a game of "guess the celebrity voice".

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is a movie that must be seen on the big screen.  It's simply the year's most unforgettable cinematic experience.  As the movie expands in theaters around the country, I hope that adult animation fans will flock to it, and treasure it for the rarity that it is.  Even by the standards of its talented director, this stands as something truly unique, special and achingly beautiful.

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