Archive

Pioneers of Japaneses Animation: From Tekobo to Momotaro

Magical Pen

Japan1946 11min 16mm B&W

Synopsis

A newspaper boy who has lost his parents during the war picks up a Western doll in the street. The boy mends the doll’s torn clothes. The doll appears in the boy’s dream, and the drawings it makes with its magical pen come to life. The boy takes the magical pen to rebuild the city, burnt down and scarred by the war. After the war, Japan received aid goods, mostly provisions, from the U.S.A., and the ‘Thank you, thank you very much’ melody inserted in the film seems a tribute to this.

Diretor