Sekai Meisaku Douwa: Hakuchou no Mizuumi

One of my childhood favorites!! I wrote down that I watched it 20 times, but truthfully I probably watched it many more times than that ^.^

While not entirely faithful, the main plot doesn't deviate much from the original Swan Lake story. However, the wonderful character development, the way the mood seamlessly slips from light-hearted comedy to heartfelt romance (and everything in between), and even the little quirky characters like that squirrell that chewed through a bunch of wooden handles make this movie one of the most memorable I've ever seen.

Since the movie was made in 1981, the art is a bit ... antiquated, but I chalk this movie up there with classics like Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service ^.^

This movie had a soft fairy tale vibe that flew along the famous Tchaikovsky theme of the same name. I don't know about the original story of the theme, but this one was about a princess of a kingdom that was defeated by a evil wizard, that was turned into a swan for no one to be able to fall in love with her. The thing is that Siegfried, a prince of a kingdom nearby gets an interest on the pretty bird on the lake, the rest, as they say, is history.

I found interesting the fact that they used the wizard as a friendly ... fellow instead of a dark ebil wizard. The princess was cute as was all the art on the film, the animation was disney like but not as expensive, it did it's trick well however.

Oh yeah, we even get "Swan Lake" in a japanese version as bonus.

Very good. 8/10

One of many classic stories that Toei turned into a movie during this period of time - this time a loose adaptation of the ballet Swan Lake.

Compared to some of the other similar feature-length movies, Swan Lake has somewhat higher production values, and it takes full advantage of the orchestral score by Tchaikovsky throughout. However, they do take some liberties with the story in order to cast it towards a younger audience, such as turning the primary antagonist into somewhat of a bumbling oafish wizard. And also Disney-fying two little squirrel characters to help move the plot ... along in some cases. Also, the deus ex machina ending was somewhat disconcerting. But again, it's a movie for a younger audience, so I can't get too up in arms about that.