Details

Release year: 1968

Storyline

A boy with a mythical sword wants to protect a Norse village from an evil ice wizard and his minions, who destroyed his family's village. However, the villagers don't fully trust him and a mysterious girl with a dark secret befriends him.

Top credits

Directors

Isao Takahata

Writers

Kazuo Fukazawa

Cast

Mikijirô Hira — Grunwald, the Demon of Ice
Etsuko Ichihara — Hilda
Eijirō Tōno — Ganko, the blacksmith
Masao Mishima — Village Leader

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Did you know

• The production was ridden with problems, mainly due to the difficult union relationships between the artists and the company Tôei Animation (then known as Tôei Dôga). The movie was released far beyond schedule and kept in the theaters only for 10 days. Because of this, it bombed, and Isao Takahata never directed for Toei again. However, the movie became immediately an underground hit among students and young anime artists, and is now widely considered the first modern anime.

• This was the first movie where now legendary Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata (later founders, along with Tôru Hara, of Studio Ghibli) worked together. At the time, Miyazaki was simply an inbetween artist at Tôei Animation (then known as Tôei Dôga), but his talent brought him to the attention of Setsuyo Matoba, who was the production supervisor. In order to find a role for Miyazaki, a "chief animator and concept artist" role was specially invented.

• The script was based on a puppet theater drama written by scriptwriter Kazuo Fukazawa, itself based on an ancient legend of the Ainu, the aboriginal people living in Northern Japan. The Scandinavian/Viking/Eastern Europe setting was an idea of the producers, worried that a movie too identified with a local culture wouldn't have had enough international appeal.