Even after 53 years, Horus, Prince of the Sun is still visually impressive to the extent my eyes felt overwhelmed by the amount of movement in a single scene.
Directed by Isao Takahata with Miyazaki as key animator, you've got the foundation for Studio Ghibli 17 years before their formation. Like most Studio Ghibli films, Horus is timeless, fun for all ages, and carries a strong moral message.
Genre : Fantasy/Adventure
Imdb : 6.6 ( 2.3k users)
My Anime list : 6.5 (3.6k users)
Run time : 1h 22m
The Plot
It follows a young boy whose dying father sends him on a quest to find his people who once suffered the wrath of a demon. Horus is the perfect example of a project that became overcomplicated due to spending too much time on it. Like with anything, perfection is impossible, and you'll always find something to improve if you look hard enough.
While I'm unaware of the ongoings of 1960's production studios, I'm happy to say its morals were vague enough to allow other universally valid interpretations. Essentially, Horus discovers a troubled village and becomes the catalyst that leads them to prosperity. Throughout the plotline, there are numerous times when the darker side of human nature intervenes to jeopardize their progress.
While the animators may have been pushing for themes voicing the power of unity, they also did a good job of portraying the influence of the individual, for better or worse. Although Horus gets the ball rolling by taking the brunt of the labor, it also depicts how negativity can spread like fire as jealousy begins to flourish within the town's leader, who feels obsolete thanks to Horus's presence. Additionally, the silver-tongued demon, Grunwald, wishes to use their weaknesses against them to create another division, symbolic of his wrath against Horus's old village.
The story's moral is that hard work and negativity are equally influential, but great accomplishments can only be achieved when working together. However, it's ironic that their vision of a project where all members have an equal say lead to it taking about four times longer to produce and remaining incomplete. Horus was initially intended to have several scenes in new locations bridging between the ones we have.
Although these scenes are missing, its premise was simplistic enough for most not to notice. Additionally, some scenes are animated far better than you can imagine possible for the 60s. Slow this video down and see how many moving entities these scenes have. I can't imagine the amount of time it took to do this.
Unfortunately, some of these jaw-dropping scenes become literal slideshows. I suppose they were intending to animate these but ran out of time. While I can't say if its production suffered from too many cooks in the kitchen or disgruntled employees taking as long as humanly possible to finish a project, I can say I'm thankful for its result.
Overall Experience
Overall it's a complete and fulfilling experience that I recommend for anyone who wants to share anime with their kids or delve into the history of anime.I give Horus an 8 out of 10. While its complete story and animation are timeless, it's clear they could have been more efficient by putting less effort into some scenes and more into others.
Comments
Post a Comment