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Pioneers of Japaneses Animation: From Tekobo to Momotaro

The Mooncastle Princess

Yasuji MURATA

Japan1934 11min 16mm B&W

Synopsis

In Squirrel Village, surrounded by flowering fields, lives a pretty girl under the care of Squirrel Grandma. One day, a wicked frog kidnaps her. The squirrel goes in search of her, and he and the frog are thrown into a fierce rough-and-tumble battle. The masterpiece of Yasuji Murata’s cut-out animations.

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).