Archive

Pioneers of Japaneses Animation: From Tekobo to Momotaro

Taro s Steamtrain

Yasuji MURATA

Japan1929 5min 16mm B&W

Synopsis

Train-loving Taro becomes the conductor of a steamtrain. The passengers are all animals. Taro gets in trouble as their bad manners start to show: one refuses to move his luggage from an empty seat to make room for the elderly, another throws empty meal boxes and fruit peelings into the aisle. A satire on public etiquette on trains.

Diretor

Yasuji MURATA

Creating the subtitles at the Yokohama Cinema Club, Yasuji Murata got interested in foreign animation and started studying it on his own. His Fight of Monkey and Crab was released in 1927. He improved the technique by putting a motor on a moving-camera, and his cut-out animation technique equals that of latter-day cel animation. Among his main works are Octopus Bones(1927), Saru Masamune(1930), Aerial Momotaro(1931), The Monkey Goes Fishing(1933), Corporal Norakuro, The Mooncastle Princess(1934), and A Night at the Bar(1936).