Horus: Prince of the Sun Film Review

Aka - The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun

Peter Jackson should take a look at this - this Japanese animation would make a fine live action fantasy film. But that isn't the reason that it is of interest to many. This was the first film directed by Isao Takahata and one of the animators on the film was Hayao Miyazaki. The two of them of course were to form Ghibli Studios though that was still over a decade in the future. They were both working for Toei Animation which wanted to be considered "the Disney of the East". A few of their anime series were Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and Galaxy Express 999. Miyazaki had joined Toei in 1963 and slowly worked his way up - he was legendary for how fast he could work and the hours he would put in. In a previous film, Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon, Miyazaki had contributed to the plot - an unusual thing for what was called an Inbetweener. Inbetweeners filled in the detail or the backgrounds after receiving the main sheet. Toei was like a factory as the various artists did specific tasks as it came their way. He was still an Inbetweener on this film, but this was a different set-up.

Takahara who was not an animator himself brought everyone on the project together and let it become a communal effort. Which is reflected in the plot of the film. It took three years to finish the film - an extraordinary amount of time for a feature at Toei. Both Takahara and Miyazaki left Toei in 1971 and joined another animation studio where they created animated TV shows - Panda Go Panda, Heidi and Anne of Green Gables. This last was so popular among young females that Prince Edward where it takes place became a huge travel destination for Japanese. Ghibli was still a few years away.

One assumes this is primarily for children because of the cute talking animals and the many songs, but it delves into some dark territory - death, betrayal, rejection, violence, fear of dying and evil. Set in Norway in ancient times, Horus is a boy of unspecified age with some talents. As the film opens, he is fighting off a pack of silver wolves with his axe, killing one after another. Things look bad though when he loses his axe, but he accidentally wakes up Mogue, the giant Rock Man, who comes out of the earth and squashes the wolves. He tells Horus that he has a thorn in his back that he can't reach - Horus offers to help and finds a sword sticking in Mogue. Mogue says he won't be able to pull it out, but like Excaliber he does and Mogue says to him that if he can forge the sword, it will become The Sword of the Sun.

Horus returns home where he finds his father dying - but before he does, he tells Horus to go find his people who were nearly destroyed by a demon. And the adventure begins. With his friend Koro, the talking bear, he comes upon the village and he kills a giant fish and becomes a hero. But the demon Grunwald knows he needs to kill Horus before he can forge the sword. He sends a horde of wolves, thousands of rats - but most dangerously a young innocent looking woman who sings the villagers to sleep. The animation is hand drawn and for its time, I think it matches up but now looks a bit primitive. It is a great story though and comes in at 80-minutes.

In Japanese with English subs