Tale of Princess Kaguya, The (Blu-ray) (2013)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Animation	Featurette Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	137:04
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Isao Takahata Isao Takahata Isao Takahata Riko Sakaguchi
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I have reviewed quite a few films from Studio Ghibli, however I can certainly say that my favourites are those under the guiding hand, in one form or other, of Hayao Miyazaki. Other directors' work from the studio has never interested me as much, despite enjoying some of the films. This film seemingly will be the swan song of the other founder of the studio Isao Takahata, the man behind films like My Neighbours the Yamadas, Grave of the Fireflies & Pom Poko. I find his work interesting but generally speaking not as engaging as Miyazaki's films. This film was a similar experience for me. Whilst I realise that this film was Oscar nominated for Best Animated Feature, for me it was beautiful and wonderfully animated in a hard drawn and artistic style but lacked entertainment value and emotional engagement. The storytelling was ponderous at times and despite the beautiful animation, I found it difficult to get through.

    The story is based on a very old Japanese folktale, called 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'. The story involves an old bamboo cutter, who is cutting bamboo in the forest one day when he find a tiny girl inside a bamboo pole. He raises her with his wife referring to her as princess. One day he find gold in another bamboo pole which enables him to move her to the capital and raise her as a princess. This attracts the attention of noble suitors who ask for her hand in marriage. Will any of the suitors be acceptable to her? And what will her ultimate fate be?

    As I mentioned above from an animation perspective this is a very artistic film, with beautiful ink pen based animation. There is a stunning sequence where she runs away that really shows off the artistic merits of the film. Fans of the art of animation will love this film due to this. Unfortunately, the story can be quite hard to watch, it goes on too long (over 2 hours) and never really engages its audience fully, at least the four people who watched the film with me. To my mind, it is more of an academic experience rather than an entertaining one.

    Recommended for fans of the art of animation, however, broader Ghibli or animation audiences will probably be disappointed.

Video

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is pretty, featuring sound and motion.

Film Completion Announcement (40:08)

    A very formal and quite dry press conference featuring the producer, director and cast and crew answering questions from the press.

Japanese Trailers (10:59)

    Various trailers for the film.

Japanese TV Spots (2:22)

    The Region A version includes a separate DVD with a feature length documentary about the making of the film. Region A wins.

    The video quality is exceptional.

    The audio quality is exceptional.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall