Momotaro: Umi no Shinpei, or Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors when translated, was the very first Japanese animated feature-length film. Directed by Mitsuyo Seo, a Japanese animator directed by the Naval Ministry to make a propaganda film in relation to WWII, this beautiful animation oozes appeal in my opinion and tells a story of an array of adorable animals (bear cub, pheasant, monkey and a puppy) who leave their families in order to have adventurous lives.
The animals beforehand had enrolled in and successfully completed naval training and along their travels face many difficulties along the way in which their naval skills come in handy in order to help their survival. This, I suppose is where the propaganda part kicks in as it almost gives off a "survival of the fittest" kind of approach by encouraging Japanese naval recruits to try their hardest for their country as their lives are indeed at stake. The use of cute and appealing characters to represent what ultimately would be war troops seems to be a successful way of engaging many audiences and almost giving them an interesting yet informative (to a point) way of looking at the war from Japan's perspective.
Seo was inspired by the 1940's film Fantasia, of which was created by Disney. He was shown this by the Japanese Naval Ministry in order to stem his ideas and give him a base for thinking. Momotaro: Umi no Shinpei also had a prequel, Momotaro's Sea Eagles or Momotaro no Umiwashi to be precise. This was a mere 37 minutes long, and didn't quite make feature-length status.
I do adore this style of animation as many people may already know. It does conform very much to Japanese animation whether it be through sound, music, style, detail, line, mark and so forth. I think Japanese animation/anime of this day and age has somewhat been influenced by this beautiful piece of art as I still see many elements of this in popular anime today.
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