Guy Lochhead, 03/03/12
Known in America as Magic Boy, this is a 1959 anime feature from Toei Animation. It is notable for a couple of seconds – the second anime feature produced in widescreen, and the second to be exported to America (the Tale Of The White Serpent beat this film to first in both categories..). The story follows a young boy’s apprenticeship to a wizard in the mountains, and his battle with a wicked witch who is terrorising his community. When I heard about this film, I was keen to include it but hesitated, thinking maybe modern children would find the pace a little too slow. HOWEVER, I used the school I work at’s film club to test this out, and the kids were rapt throughout, even though they were 5-11 and have English as a second language… It’s a brilliant film that fuses tranquil passages of beautifully painted landscapes, cultural insight into Old Japan, an apprenticeship/training theme that all kids love, young heroes, a bit of slapstick and some really storming – but not too silly – fight sequences (climaxing in an awesome, terrifying skeleton transformation-death). Another significant factor for its inclusion is that the magic here is earned, not given.