Little Norse Prince (196 Taiyo no oji: Horusu no daiboken

Directed by Isao Takahata

This was a groundbreaking anime, the one that first connected the names of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki who of course went on to create Japans greatest anime house Studio Ghibli.

The actual story is fairly simple and follows the traditional Heros Quest, a young boy sets out on a journey with a series of quests at the end of which he will have grown physically, mentally and spiritually.

Set in Scandinavia in the distant past, Horus and his companion Coro, (a bear cub) are harassed by a pack of wolves, the noise of whom wakes up an imaginatively designed slumbering rock giant who has his own thorny problem. Horus removes the thorn that turns out to be a powerful sword, unlike King Arthur, the sword doesnt bring instant power but it does push him towards his epic quest.

Horuss father is critically ill but before he dies he tells Horus about their past and the evil demon that destroyed their home village. After giving his father a Viking style funeral, Horus sails Northwards to find his kin and to try to find and destroy the demon.

From then on his adventures take him to the deceitful demon and a village that has more than its share of problems including a giant killer carp. Theres double crossing, a love interest who is far more than she appears and plotting a-plenty before a final confrontation with the demon that will decide the future of all humanity.

The standard of the animation and backdrops surprised me; they are fresh looking and are more modern in appearance than most anime from the 1980s, there is one scene when an enormous pack of wolves are attacking the village where a lot of static screens illustrate the action, I'm not sure if these have been added since the initial release but you can understand that the scene would have been incredibly complex and time consuming to have rendered. The sound on the other hand is dated, a definite nostalgia trip but there are some fabulous creepy sound effects. 

Another surprise was the number of songs during the film, not like Disney where anything and everything suddenly explodes into song for no apparent reason, these belong within the structure of the story, I cant remember seeing any other anime with so much singing in it.

Although the original story was taken from a Japanese folk tale, it was given the Nordic touch to try and make it more saleable on the World market, I wonder how it would have looked if they had kept the original setting? Considered to be the first modern anime, certainly style-wise. The film failed on its release but became a cult hit (and rightly so). 

Both directors have moved on in leaps and bounds since Little Norse Prince but this is a delightful and thoroughly recommended film, of course it also has historical significance for any anime fan. 

Cheers Trev.

BBFC rated U

R2 Pal dvd available from Optimum Releasing.