Usagi to Kame

For me, Usagi to Kame was an absolute masterpiece, however for many Usagi to Kame falls short.

First off I should say that this story is based of the Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare and they did a great job recreating it.

Story: The Story is classic and amazing. It is about overcoming challenges.

Sound: N/A They had no sound.

Character: I loved the two characters. I especially love the hare. While many people might dislike him due to his cockiness, I like him for that. The hare was very "human" in sense and the director of film was able to bring that out well.

Enjoyment: I ... had a lot of enjoyment in this piece. You can see the improvement of Namakura Gatana work which goes to show the improvement of animation overtime.

7/23/2022 Edit: So I have recently rewatched Usagi to Kame after watching few other extant animations around this time. While the art is amazing, I have realized I overpraised it quite a bit for the position as a reviewer that I am. So here is an improved critique on the art section that separates my feelings from the review a bit more:

For Usagi to Kame's time, 1927, the art was very good. The beautiful use of stilling and other pattern making techniques was amazing and for any new art student, looking at this piece of work will allow you to learn more about the use of stilling itself. Namakura Gatana used eyerolling and little cute dances to give his characters more expression.

While for an artist the art might seem amazing and an excellent introduction to stilling for others the art of Usagi to Kame falls short. The art can seem very slow especially because in most scenes only one thing moves. This combined with the lack of sound can make Usagi to Kame feel much more drawn out. For those only looking for a story and enjoyment Usagi to Kame will feel boring and will not suite your taste, but for those looking to relish in the mind of the artist, you will have a much more enjoyable time.

Overall: If you are interested in old animation, the history of animation, or art in general, you will enjoy Usagi to Kame, however, for those looking for an amazing use of animation and time Usagi to Kame is not it.

Rate a 6
English subtitled
art film

Story
I am well aware of the classic tale of the bunny and the turtle. Those not familiar with the message behind it is to not underestimate your opponent. I like the childish song approach. Reminds me of Anything you can do I can do better song. While the story has an uplifting message the ending dialog was a bit snootiness and the animated art wasn't that better on that point.

Art
-black and white production
-A tad too long of a delay on the animation for introduction.
...
Sound- nothing to comment on

Character- nothing to comment on

Enjoyment: With the minor exception of the crown scene this a delightful short starting animation most ages can benefit from. The crow scene involves the noise you would expect although like English has taught one countless times before words generally carry multiple meanings. In this case the animated sound in word form is also a vulgar mention, a no-no word. Not easily caught by english folks because you would need to know Japanese to catch it.

A fun little animation of the Aesop fable. There's a few moments of excellent creativity in this short film, such as when the rabbit is shown rolling down the hill in one cut, or the raven's insults of the rabbit homing in on the rabbit's head.

However, overall the animation isn't particularly good. A lot of the motion isn't very smooth, and the tortoise's limb and neck movements in particular don't look very natural. The rabbit's face looks quite bizarre at times, too. Simply put, the animation here just doesn't measure up to most Western films, nor even to many other Japanese animation, from the ... same time period.

On the other hand... it does have a breakdancing tortoise.