freeson w
Takahata's debut film foreshadows the work that he will do later, but to be honest, the filmmaking, animation, and story are rough here. Even masters have to start somewhere! The story follows the Horus, who has to avenge the death of his father by defeating the evil ice devil Grunwald. He winds up at a village and rescues a girl, Hilda, who later betrays Horus when it's revealed she's secretly Grunwald's sister. The story and animation is ambitious here, with a giant battle at the end between Horus and Grunwald.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
William L
Talk about humble beginnings. Horus is remembered today predominantly as the first major credit of animator Hayao Miyazaki and an early directoral work from Isao Takahata, whose legendary partnership would blossom into Studio Ghibli, and to a lesser extent, for creating a Norse setting where people apparently don't wear pants. However, this 1968 film predates the start of Miyazaki's canon of major works by more than 15 years, and can hardly be judged on equal footing with those later classics. There are elements of the fanciful imagination that would come to rank the pair among the greatest creative minds in the history of animation, but they are few and far between, and the actual quality of the animation is just so poor by comparison that it's really hard to derive much enjoyment from the experience. Sure, compared to Hanna-Barbera's cost-cutting methods of reusing stock assets and only aiming for the bare minimum, this Toei work must have compared favorably, but many of the so-called action scenes aren't even animated, they're just a collection of stills with audio added on top, plus the characters lack depth and the dialogue is rough. It has value from a historical perspective, but it's a difficult experience to get through. (2/5)
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/18/21
Full Review
s r
Many half baked ideas trying to show the Nordic mythology and it's fantastic nature, all with a Japanese twist. There's good stuff here, maybe it should be remade?
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A vintage classic of Japanese animation, HORUS PRINCE OF THE SUN (released in America on TV as "Little Norse Prince Valiant" for some reason) was the directorial debut of Isao Takahata, the man who would go on to create classics such as GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS, and his recent swan song THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA. At the time of its release (1968), this was the most expensive animated film from Japan -- and it took longer to create than the average feature at the time, and unfortunately for Takahata it would be his only film as a director for his company, Toei Studios. The box office failure of this film caused Takahata to be demoted -- a rather undeserving fate for such a daring, dramatic tale. Also noteworthy is that it was the first time that another auteur, a then young Hayao Miyazaki would make his first collaboration with Takahata that would later lead to a successful partnership. Because this is a much older film, the artwork may seem a bit primitive to today's films. That said, HORUS still looks quite lavish and richly detailed for a film dating from such an era. The animation is quite fluid for the most part, save for the occasional bits of still frame panning (the only minor false note of the film). But what earns this film my highest rating is its complex, dark plot and rich characters -- a trademark of later films these two artists would display. Indeed, this tale of a Scandinavian boy who draws a powerful sword from a stone giant and matches wits against an evil ice warlord has a surprisingly unpredictable and mature edge. Action-packed, occasionally violent, but always engrossing, this is a movie that I highly recommend not only to ardent fans of Miyazaki and Takahata, but to anyone interested in "epic" folktales.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/19/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Takahata's first film is certainly a good note to start on. The story is actually deceptively interesting, though the animation is very dated. Overall, it has plenty of flaws, but you can see the early hallmarks of his unique style sprinkled throughout. Definitely worth at least one watch.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
Full Review
david l
Althouh there is too much singing and some parts do drag and slow the story a bit, Hols: Prince of the Sun is nevertheless a stupendous film with a terrific opening that instantly gets you interested in the film, well-written plot, complex characters, great animation for its time, some very interesting and artistic sequences and with a lot of heart at its core. It is a wonderful grandfather to feature-length anime films, it is unfortunately a forgotten film and that is a real shame because it truly is one of the very first excellent anime productions that is certainly worth checking out.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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