{"id":3488,"date":"2016-06-23T14:53:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T18:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=3488"},"modified":"2024-05-05T18:45:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T22:45:25","slug":"the-tale-of-the-princess-kaguya-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=3488","title":{"rendered":"The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya-2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Isao Takahata<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring (Voices) Chlo\u00eb Grace Moretz, Darren Criss<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s Review #430<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Reviewed June 23, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya is a Japanese animated film released in 2014.<\/p>\n

It is a unique film- mixing elements of fantasy and drama- stunning to experience and appreciate from a creative perspective. Unusual still is the lengthy running time of two hours and seventeen minutes- animated films are typically on the short side.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that it drags, although I found it helpful to view it in segments.<\/p>\n

Originally made in Japanese, the film has been dubbed in English and features recognizable voices such as Mary Steenburgen, Lucy Lui, and James Caan.<\/p>\n

A bamboo cutter, Miyatsuko, discovers a baby girl inside a bamboo tree one day. He and his wife consider her a divine presence and keep her as their own, naming her Princess Kaguya.<\/p>\n

Mysteriously, she begins to grow and develop at an alarming rate and is the wonder of the village. Kaguya develops a playful crush on Sutemaru, a handsome peasant. \u00a0Kaguya, led by her parents, is taken into a life of nobility and wealth as her destiny.<\/p>\n

Her governess attempts to mold her into a regal Princess, but Kaguya is a wandering, free spirit, and rejects the formalities of this life. Her myriad of wealthy suitors counters her feelings for Sutemaru.<\/p>\n

From a story perspective, the film shines, as the conflict over wealth versus poverty is explored. Kaguya’s parents are not greedy, but they want her to receive just desserts and a life free of hardship- as they are used to.<\/p>\n

They want something better for her.<\/p>\n

One can relate to the parent’s views, but Kaguya feels differently. She wants freedom, love, and happiness, not a life of rules, procedures, smoke and mirrors.<\/p>\n

The filmmakers present the viewpoint of someone “other-worldly”\u00a0 observing and analyzing planet Earth, warts and all, so the film has a message. It is not cliched or overbearing in its approach though-merely honest and sincere.<\/p>\n

Every frame in the film appears to be a gorgeous drawing- not conventional, fast-paced animation, but classic, muted, pastel-type colors are used, giving it a softer touch, which astounded me.<\/p>\n

If one is not into the story (tough to imagine), one could easily sit back and marvel at the spectacle.<\/p>\n

The growing trend in animated films seems to be a return to traditional drawings- think Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from the 1960s- as evidenced by The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya and Anomalisa (2015), two recent animated features receiving critical acclaim.<\/p>\n

This is music to my ears as these are far superior to the redundant, CGI-laden films.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Animated Feature Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya-2014 Director Isao Takahata Starring (Voices) Chlo\u00eb Grace Moretz, Darren Criss Scott\u2019s Review #430 Reviewed June 23, 2016 Grade: B+ The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya is a Japanese animated film released in 2014. It is a unique film- mixing elements of fantasy and drama- stunning to experience and appreciate … Continue reading The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya-2014<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,37,4429,3128,4427,4425,4428,4426,4424,976,3607,448,2339,1194,1588],"tags":[78,54,4435,3132,4433,4431,4434,4432,4430,980,3610,449,2341,1199,1594],"class_list":["post-3488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-animatedfilms","category-beau-bridges","category-chloe-grace-moretz","category-daniel-dae-kim","category-darren-criss","category-dean-cain","category-george-segal","category-isao-takahata","category-james-caan","category-james-marsden","category-japanese-films","category-lucy-liu","category-mary-steenburgen","category-oliver-platt","tag-2014-movie-reviews","tag-animated-films","tag-beau-bridges","tag-chloe-grace-moretz","tag-daniel-dae-kim","tag-darren-criss","tag-dean-cain","tag-george-segal","tag-isao-takahata","tag-james-caan","tag-james-marsden","tag-japanese-films","tag-lucy-liu","tag-mary-steenburgen","tag-oliver-platt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3488"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20183,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488\/revisions\/20183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}