Archive

Pioneers of Japaneses Animation: From Tekobo to Momotaro

The Monkey Goes Fishing

Yasuji MURATA

Japan1933 9min 16mm B&W

Synopsis

This is the first of the full-fledged talking/sound animations. A raccoon and a monkey go ice fishing. The fish won’t bite, so the monkey goes skating. At last a big one is almost caught but disappears in an instant into the water. The monkey dives after the fish, cleverly luring all the fish out on to the ice, and the monkey and the raccoon get together in hauling them in.

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).