Director
Winter Days is a 2003 animated film, directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names of animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn's, though, is nearly two minutes long).
Art Direction
A short film based on a story by Japanese writer Kenji Miyazawa in which two young British hunters get lost in the woods and discover a strange restaurant. Are the hunters about to discover how it feels to be hunted?
Key Animation
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
Animation Director
Patterned after Japanese art and silk screens, Taro, The Dragon Boy is an animated feature about Japanese mythology and cultures, focusing on Taro, a young boy who has to make a voyage to a distant lake to save his mother, who has been turned into a dragon.
Animation Director
The story of a beautiful mermaid who gave up a kingdom for her beloved prince.
Key Animation
Pero is back in Go Go Town, a fearful place in the Wild West that desperately awaits for a sheriff to come. In this town of no law and order, Pero and a boy named Jimmy try to help Annie, daughter of a saloon owner who has just been killed.
Key Animation
A peasant boy and 38 cats band against the tyrannical Ali Baba the 33rd and his cat-phobic genie.
Key Animation
A Japanese adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, featuring animals as the majority of the cast. By chance Jim comes upon a map of Treasure Island. He leaves the port accompanied by Glan, the rat and Bub, the baby on a strange looking boat of his own make to look for the island. Pirates soon find him and adventure ensues.
Animation Director
The ruler of the underground world, is planning to conquer the whole world. Riding the fire dragon Isamu and Angel, the princess of the undersea kingdom, try to stop him from destorying their world.
Key Animation
The ruler of the underground world, is planning to conquer the whole world. Riding the fire dragon Isamu and Angel, the princess of the undersea kingdom, try to stop him from destorying their world.
Animation
Young Horus lives in a mythical Scandinavia of the Iron Age. Recovering the stolen Sword of the Sun from a rock giant, he learns he must travel to the lands of his ancestors, encountering the beautiful but enigmatic Hilda as his journey leads to a series of adventures.
Animation
An animated collaboration between Osamu Tezuka and Toei Animation.
Key Animation
In this influential* cult-classic animated film based on Japanese folklore, Susano is the youngest son of Izanagi and Izanami, the heavenly couple who created the Earth. Still a young boy, Susano is devastated by the passing away of his mother. Determined to find her despite the reprimands of his father, he embarks on a journey to find his brother and his sister for spiritual guidance. *Genndy Tartakovsky identifies this film as a primary influence on the direction and design of his TV series Samurai Jack (2001–2004; 2017). Yōichi Kotabe was a character animator on the film, and used it as inspiration for the art direction of the video game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002). Tomm Moore, director of the Oscar-nominated films The Secret of Kells (2009), Song of the Sea (2014), and Wolfwalkers (2020), has identified the film as a major influence.
Key Animation
Two young aspiring adventurers, Sindbad and Ali, find an old sailor who has washed up on the shore. With his final breath, the sailor tells them a tale of a hidden treasure and hands over the map he had held on to through his trials. And so, the two would-be heroes are off for adventure. But the road to riches is paved with hardships: their travels lead from stowing away on a ship to the sultan's dungeons -- only to escape with the sultan's daughter in tow!
