Wanpaku Ouji no Orochi Taiji
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese traditional animation
Traditional animation
Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...

 fantasy
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...

 adventure
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....

 feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

, the 6th feature produced by Tōei Animation
Toei Animation
Toei Animation Co., Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio owned by Toei Co., Ltd. The studio was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films . In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name...

 (then Tōei Dōga), released in Japan on March 24, 1963. English-dubbed versions have been released under several titles, including The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, Prince in Wonderland and Rainbow Bridge.

Based on the Shintō
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 myth of the storm god Susano'o
Susanoo
, also known as is the Shinto god of the sea and storms. He is also considered to be ruler of Yomi.-Myths:In Japanese mythology, Susanoo, the powerful storm of Summer, is the brother of Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, and of Tsukuyomi, the god of the moon. All three were born from Izanagi, when...

's battle with the Yamata no Orochi, the color, "TōeiScope" anamorphic format
Anamorphic format
Anamorphic format is a term that can be used either for: the cinematography technique of capturing a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film, or other visual recording media, with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio; or a photographic projection format in which the original image requires an...

 film is scripted by Ichirō Ikeda and Takashi Iijima and directed by Yūgo Serikawa. It is considered one of the very best of the Tōei Dōga features and a landmark in anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 and animated features in general, placing 10th in the list of the 150 best animated films and series of all time compiled by Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

's Laputa Animation Festival from an international survey of animation staff and critics in 2003. It features distinctively modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

, abstracted
Abstraction
Abstraction is a process by which higher concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal concepts, first principles, or other methods....

 character
Model sheet
In animation, a model sheet, also known as a character board, character sheet, character study or simply a study, is a document used to help standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of an animated character...

, background
Background artist
A background artist or sometimes called a background stylist or background painter is one who is involved in the process of animation who establishes the color, style, and mood of a scene drawn by an animation layout artist. The methods used can either be through traditional painting or by digital...

 and color design, formalised the role of animation director
Animation director
An animation director is the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated film or animated segment for a live-action film...

, performed here by Yasuji Mori
Yasuji Mori
Yasuji Mori was an animator who worked with Toei Animation, while it was still known as Toei Doga. He was also a famous illustrator of children's books....

, in the Japanese system and drew attention to the talents of key
Key frame
A key frame in animation and filmmaking is a drawing that defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition. They are called "frames" because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of film...

 animators Yasuo Ōtsuka
Yasuo Otsuka
is a Japanese animator who worked with Toei Animation and Studio Ghibli.Prior to becoming an animator, Ōtsuka worked in the Kantō-Kōshin'etsu district drug enforcement office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. As a member of the support staff , he was responsible for the seizure of drugs and...

 and Yōichi Kotabe
Yoichi Kotabe
, is a Japanese manga artist and animator who has worked with Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. He is a lecturer at Tokyo Designer Academy in their cartoon film course....

 (whose key animation for the film, though he is credited in it as an in-betweener, is his first) and assistant director
Assistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...

s Isao Takahata
Isao Takahata
is a Japanese anime filmmaker that have earned critical international acclaim for his work as a director. Takahata is co-founder of Studio Ghibli with long-time collaborative partner Hayao Miyazaki. He has directed films such as the war-themed Grave of the Fireflies, the romantic-drama Only...

 and Kimio Yabuki
Kimio Yabuki
Kimio Yabuki is a Japanese animator. Known in Japan for his work on many early classic works by the Toei Animation studio, his best known film in the West is Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer from 1985, produced by the French company DiC with animation work done in Japan.In 1969, he teamed up...

. The score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...

, composed by Akira Ifukube
Akira Ifukube
was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores, perhaps best known for his work on the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies by Toho.-Biography:...

, is also acclaimed.

Plot

This anime film tells the story of the god Susano'o (as a cute boy), whose mother Izanami
Izanami
In Japanese mythology, is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi-no-Mikoto. She is also referred to as Izanami-no-kami.-Goddess of Creation:...

 has died. He is deeply hurt by the loss of his mother but his father Izanagi
Izanagi
is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shinto, and is also referred to in the roughly translated Kojiki as "male-who-invites" or Izanagi-no-mikoto. It is also pronounced Izanaki-no-Okami....

 tells him that his mother is now in heaven. Despite Izanagi's warnings, Susano'o eventually sets off to find her. Along with his companions, Akahana (a little talking rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

) and Titan Bō (a strong but friendly giant from the Land of Fire), Susano'o overcomes all obstacles in his long voyage. He eventually comes to the Izumo Province
Izumo Province
was an old province of Japan which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province is in the Chūgoku Region.- History :It was one of the regions of ancient Japan where major political powers arose...

, where he meets Princess Kushinada, a little girl whom he becomes friends with (he also thinks that she is so beautiful that she looks like his mother). Kushinada's family tells Susano'o that their other seven daughters were sacrificed to the fearsome eight-headed serpent, the Yamata no Orochi. Susano'o is so infatuated with Kushinada that he decides to help her family protect her and slay the Orochi once and for all and he, Akahana and Bō prepare for the showdown.

Selected staff

  • Executive producer
    Executive producer
    An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...

    : Hiroshi Ōkawa
  • Developers: Shin Yoshida, Isamu Takahashi, Takashi Iijima
  • Animation director: Yasuji Mori
    Yasuji Mori
    Yasuji Mori was an animator who worked with Toei Animation, while it was still known as Toei Doga. He was also a famous illustrator of children's books....

  • Key animators: Hideo Furusawa, Masao Kumagawa, Yasuo Ōtsuka
    Yasuo Otsuka
    is a Japanese animator who worked with Toei Animation and Studio Ghibli.Prior to becoming an animator, Ōtsuka worked in the Kantō-Kōshin'etsu district drug enforcement office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. As a member of the support staff , he was responsible for the seizure of drugs and...

    , Daikichirō Kusube, Makoto Nagasawa, Chikao Katsui, Yōichi Kotabe
    Yoichi Kotabe
    , is a Japanese manga artist and animator who has worked with Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. He is a lecturer at Tokyo Designer Academy in their cartoon film course....

    , Masatake Kita
  • In-between supervisor: Sanae Yamamoto
  • Art director
    Art director
    The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....

    : Reiji Koyama
  • Background artists: Tomō Fukumoto, Eiko Sugimoto, Isamu Kageyama, Hideo Chiba
  • Color stylist: Saburō Yokoi
  • Assistant directors: Isao Takahata
    Isao Takahata
    is a Japanese anime filmmaker that have earned critical international acclaim for his work as a director. Takahata is co-founder of Studio Ghibli with long-time collaborative partner Hayao Miyazaki. He has directed films such as the war-themed Grave of the Fireflies, the romantic-drama Only...

    , Kimio Yabuki
    Kimio Yabuki
    Kimio Yabuki is a Japanese animator. Known in Japan for his work on many early classic works by the Toei Animation studio, his best known film in the West is Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer from 1985, produced by the French company DiC with animation work done in Japan.In 1969, he teamed up...


Voice artists
  • Morio Kazama
    Morio Kazama
    is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 2nd Yokohama Film Festival for Shiki Natsuko and Yūgure made and at the 6th and 7th Japan Academy Prizes.-Filmography:...

     (credited as Tomohito Sumita) as Susano'o
  • Yukiko Okada as Kushinada-Hime
  • Chiharu Kuri as Akahana
  • Masato Yamanōchi
    Masato Yamanouchi
    Masato Yamanouchi was a seiyū who died on April 7, 2003 due to complications from lung cancer just four days after his 74th birthday.-Notable voice roles:...

     as Wadatsumi
    Watatsumi
    was a legendary Japanese dragon and tutelary water deity. In Japanese mythology, is another name for the sea deity Ryūjin 龍神; and the ruling the upper, middle, and lower seas were created through the divine progenitor Izanagi's ceremonial purifications after returning from Yomi "the...

     and also as Kushinada-Hime's father

Release

The film was distributed in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, as The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, as a matinée feature by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

, opening January 1, 1964. Its Japanese origin was downplayed, as was standard practice at the time, with William Ross
William Ross
-Politicians:*William Ross, Baron Ross of Marnock , Secretary of State for Scotland in the 1960s*William Ross , merchant, ship builder and politician in Nova Scotia, Canada...

, the director of the English dubbing, credited as director and Fujifilm
Fujifilm
is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...

 and Tōei's color and widescreen processes rebranded as "MagiColor" and "WonderScope" respectively.

Though still highly regarded in animation circles, the film is now little-known outside of them and as of April 2011 the most recent home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...

 edition is a now-out of print Japanese DVD-Video
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...

 released in 2002 and reissued in limited quantity in 2008.

Reception

Accolades received by Wanpaku at the time of its release including being honoured with a Bronze Osella at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

 and the Ōfuji Noburō Award at the 1963 Mainichi Film Awards and making it into the official recommendations of the Japanese Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan)
The ' is a cabinet level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as Kōrō-shō in Japan. This ministry provides regulations on maximum residue limits for agricultural chemicals in foods, basic food and drug regulations, standards for foods, food additives, etc.It was formed with...

's Central Child Welfare Council. More recently, Genndy Tartakovsky
Genndy Tartakovsky
Genndy Borisovich Tartakovsky is a Russian-American television animator, director and producer. His best-known creations are Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and Sym-Bionic Titan...

 is among those that have experienced the film and identifies it as a primary influence on the direction and design of his Samurai Jack
Samurai Jack
Samurai Jack is an American animated television series created by animator Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on both Cartoon Network and Toonami from 2001 to 2004. It is noted for its highly detailed, outline-free, masking-based animation, as well as for its cinematic style and pacing...

.
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