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Studio Ghibli’s “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” made its American debut in 2014. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata. Some of the voice actors include Chloë Grace Moretz, James Caan and Mary Steenburgen. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. I liked this movie very much, and it looks like the critics agree. This film has a 100 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Part of this is because of the unique story.
Princess Kaguya comes into the world from the middle of a bamboo stock. A bamboo cutter finds her and brings her home, where she starts growing rapidly. The man believes her to be a princess and thinks she is his blessing from heaven. He also finds a lot of gold and material to create beautiful clothes in bamboo stocks. The Bamboo Cutter, along with his wife, uses these treasures to turn the girl into the real princess he believes her to be. Princess Kaguya has a hard time dealing with the process of becoming a princess. She is expected to act according to certain rules, but she is a free spirit. This creates a situation no one expected.
The story is augmented by the incredible visual aspects of the movie. Everything was created by hand, and each frame could stand alone as a beautiful picture. It definitely adds to the magic of their world. My favorite part of the movie is when the princess runs away during a celebration in her honor. It gave me instant goosebumps. She flys across the screen, her anger unmistakable. At one point, she sheds several layers of colorful robes. It moves so fast, and it’s so gorgeous to look at. The lines of the scene are scribbled in order to create the fast-paced action.
Another of my favorite scenes to look at involves the princess turning in circles under a cherry blossom. It has a similar visual technique. It took me back to when I would spin around when was little. I remembered how fun and freeing that felt. Because of the amazing movement and beauty of the scene I could share in Princess Kaguya’s disappointment when that sensation came to an end. Not only does the visual experience affect the movie, but also the voice actors themselves are really important to portraying the story in the correct way.
I started watching the movie in english. However, the voice acting of Caan (The Bamboo Cutter) was too distracting to me after only about five minutes. It didn’t really seem to match well with the flow of the film. The lines were really choppy. I liked it better in Japanese. The movement of the characters and the tone matched the Japanese voice actors. In addition, hearing a movie that takes place in Japan in the Japanese language makes it seem more believable. It puts the audience in the world easier.
I watched some parts of the movie in english afterwards to see how that affected the scenes. Moretz (Princess Kaguya) sounded good on the parts of the film where the princess is speaking quietly and slowly. However, on the faster speaking parts, the princess spoke exactly the way Moretz usually speaks. That distracted me, and it took me right out the scene. I think the tone she used matched the tone of the movie really well though. For me, if a voice is too recognizable, it takes away from the character I’m watching on the screen.
Another thing that made a difference in the tone of the film was the music. There is a song in the movie that the princess knows a second verse to that no one else does. This song comes up several times and ties into the big plot point of the movie. The other music that is played during the movie amplifies what the characters are doing. There are some wonderful quiet moments that the characters don’t speak. The music speaks instead.
Because of these things, I couldn’t help but love “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.” It is now one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies. I hope more people watch it, so they can have the same great experience as I did.
