Anime: Mori no Densetsu

Osamu Tezuka strikes yet again with yet another interesting experimental short movie. Legend of the Forest is interesting for its concept and not for its story or characters. What you practically get here is an excuse of a story used purely to show the evolution of animation. Each segment of the movie is done in a style that is reflecting a different decade, and as the story progresses you see the animation methods as they evolved over the decades. Starting from static pictures, to granny black & white, to color, to the use of computers in order to make objects look more real. It is all quite interesting from an artistic point of view.

On the other hand, there is not much of a story or interesting characters in it. Even the few specks of those make little sense and are there as plot devices and poor excuses to keep the plot going. It starts as the tragic life of a squirrel but after a point on it turns to some ecology-pro story, showing evil humans destroying the forest and the creatures living there try to find a solution. Where did the squirrel go??? Where did these mythological creatures appear from??? And what kind of a co-out ending is that, throwing tree-hugging messages at my face like that? Is this movie supposed to be for the family and offers politically correct messages? I thought it was an experimental movie for the elite so why did it perform such a turnaround and became a mediocrity towards the end?

Anyways, the aesthetics of the movie in terms of production values are very eye-captivating while story and characters plain suck, not just because they are simple and political correct but also because they are poorly written and directed. It is an interesting shot but it could have been a lot more if it weren’t so easy going.

A strange and short movie from 1987.

Art/Animation
This anime makes a unique use of art and animation. In the beginning there is no animation, just art. It's like a slide show of black and white manga images. Then suddenly we get animation and the art reduces to simple line art. After some time the art suddenly changes to something decent (but still black and white only). Over the next few minutes the art gradually improves, with more and more detail. After 13 minutes, the art gets some color. During the remainder of the anime, the art and animation don't change anymore.

The characters (animals and people) in this anime have a very western design. Some of the characters look like they came straight from an old Disney cartoon. Other characters look like they come from all kinds of other (non-Disney) western cartoons. One man in this anime looks like the twin brother of Brutus from Popeye...

Overall, the quality of the animation and art is average. It does get a bonus point for it uniqueness.

Sound
There is no dubbing. In fact, there isn't any sound in it, except for the background music. The lack of dubbing and sound effects makes the anime feel dull.

All music in Mori no Densetsu is classical instrumental music. I did not like the music in this anime that much. However, the music is composed by a famous Russian composer named Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, so I can't really say it's bad music. Personally I believe there are better composers out there.

Story
This movie has an environmental theme. It's mostly about a squirrel defending its home. There's not really much more to tell about the story. The lack of dubbing makes it hard to create a good story.

Character
I didn't like the characters much. Both animals and people are rather plain and stereotypical. Also, this anime is too short to have any actual character development.

Conclusion/Overall
Overall Mori no Densetsu gets an average rating, even though there's nothing average about this anime. It's a unique anime, and it's only 30 minutes long, so you won't loose much time watching it. I can't say I enjoyed watching this, but I was intrigued by its art and animation. If you like classical music, then you might like this anime.