That school was forced to close recently and the librarian asked me to take as many things as I could from the library. After wandering around like the oft-mentioned kid in a candy store, I was surprised to find that the VHS I had watched was still in the rack. I figured I had really lucked out and watched it at the first chance I had.
Yes, it was indeed childlike innocence that let me be so entranced by this movie when I first saw it. The animation, although better than a lot of others in its time period, is often stiff and flat. The story isn't really as accurate to the story as I had thought, and in fact seems closer to the Disney version - which is pretty strange, considering that this was made first. The dub is pretty awful, especially the performance of the main character, who seems to really enjoy filling mouth flaps with bizarrely pornographic "oh"s.
But the art style is still beautiful, and the story is still much more interesting than the Disneyfied version. If you have a little girl around, I'd suggest showing her this old gem instead. I'm sure she'll be entraced.
