Story:
This is based on a Chinese fairytale that I have never heard of before, so I have no idea how faithful this adaption is. As a romance, I found it well done. It's easy to root for the main characters to get together in the end. I don't know if these animals were in the original tale, but they do a good job as filler material. Slightly annoying however was the narrator, who kept describing what we see. Do we really need this?
8/10
Art:
To put this in historical context, this was made one year prior to Disneys Sleeping Beauty. If we look at Disney as the nonplusultra in animation at that time, Hakujaden does not look much worse. Sure, there are some things one might find odd nowadays, like the character design, which is closer to traditional Japanese art than to what we recognize as anime art today, but for a country without a high profile history of animation, this movie looks amazing (for 1958).
9/10
Sound:
The sound quality is not very good, which is not that surprising considering its age. Some of the voice actors sounded quite...let's call it odd. The traditional Chinese music was great for setting the mood and the woman who did the singing in the beginning (I guess she's the same who voiced Pai Niang) was really good. Fair for its day, but nothing to write home about.
6/10
Characters:
As I said, the main couple were both likeable people. Their sidekicks were not that bad and did something noteworthy a couple of times. The bad guy (if you will) was interesting, as he saw his actions as righteous and justified. All in all, quite the interesting cast.
8/10
Enjoyment:
I was a little worried that I might end up having to force myself through this, but to my suprise, this movie ended up being pretty entertaining. There were barely any drawn out scenes, or rather, they didn't feel like it. If you're interested in the history of anime or animation in general, The Legend of the White Serpent should be an easy pick.
8/10
Overall:
7.8/10
