Taro is the epitome of laziness. While the villagers toil on the land to raise crops of millet and beans Taro sleeps about only getting up to eat and wrestle the local wildlife. Even Taro's grandmother struggles to make ends meet and the villagers scorn Taro and his laziness and gluttony. One day as he wrestles a passing Tengu the creature grants Taro the strength of 100 men, but he can only use this strength when he helps others and not himself.
Taro finds out that his mother is alive. But, in a cruel twist of moral fate, before he was born, she was turned into a dragon by the gods because of a selfish act. Taro's grandmother found him floating in the lake his mother resides in and raises him on her own. Taro embarks on a quest to find this lake and his mother.
Taro: The Doragon Boy is traced with characters coming from Japanese folklore. Dragons, Tengu [minor deity] and Oni [demon] fit right in with talking animals. Of course the benefit of animation is that such worlds can be created and explored and none of it is questioned. Children will be so used to seeing mythical creatures and talking animals that none of it should come as a surprise or startle them.
The character design is simple in that glorious 70s style. Character lines are simple and the colors are bold, not overwrought with detail. The simplicity in the design though helps the characters stand out from beautiful background designs. Mostly finished in stark and neutral water colors the backgrounds offer a suitable contrast to the characters.
It is a film where the lesson is simple and straightforward, selfless acts reap the greatest rewards. Perhaps, this is a lesson that everyone can take to heart and not just our children. Taro's strength of 100 men only comes when he helps others and when he realizes the plight of his people and others he strives to better his world. One can't expect any deep plot or underlying sub-plots, this is after all a children's movie. But, parents may find themselves in an awkward position having to explain the casualness in which nudity [breast and a penis] is portrayed, but only if them or their children get hung up on it.
The only imbalance in my review is that I didn't give the English translation much time. And this is mostly because of the purist in me. I will say though that since my last experience with the animated film Animal Treasure Island [review] I thought I would at least switch the audio when the songs came on. Thankfully, the songs weren't ignored during the dubbing of this movie. However, I can only assume that the imagery and poetry of the Japanese song lyrics was perceived to be a bit beyond the scope of a western audience and new and more obvious lyrics were supplemented.
Discotekmedia website
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
Region 1
NTSC
Color
75 Minutes
Not Rated
Audio:
1. Japanese
2. English
Subtitles:
1. Slates
2. English