If any animation house has the chops to tackle a 10th-century Japanese fable about an otherworldly young woman who mysteriously pops up inside the stalk of a bamboo plant, it is Studio Ghibli. The makers of the acclaimed “Princess Mononoke,” “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and other fanciful features are more than up to the task with “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” a gorgeous, magical and melancholy fantasia about the joy and pain of human existence.
The art is lyrical, with the look of a pencil-and- watercolor sketch. The story, about a beautiful but alien creature who grows up to break hearts, including her own, is poignant. If there’s a flaw, it’s that the story is overly long. At 2¼ hours, it feels like an epic, though its subject matter is gossamer-thin.
Based on the Japanese folktale “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” “Princess Kaguya” centers on a pretty young woman discovered inside a sprouting bamboo plant by a childless couple. Originally the size of a mouse, yet fully developed, Kaguya (or Li’l Bamboo, as she is affectionately known) quickly grows to normal size, developing a friendship with a handsome country boy. But the bamboo cutter, who also has chanced upon a cache of gold, decides to raise his adoptive daughter as a princess, hoping to marry her off to some member of the aristocracy whom she doesn’t love.
As with any cartoon princess this doesn’t sit well. But if you think that “Princess Kaguya” is a story about girl power or true love triumphing over an arranged marriage, think again. The storyis dark and involves the death of one of her swains. This is a movie that’s made more for grown-up tastes and expectations than for little girls running around the house dressed up like Disney princesses.
