Legend of the forest

Recently I watched a rarity of a film called Legend of The Forest which was one of Tezuka’s experimental works. Osamu Tezuka is the creator of many great works for example Astroboy and Kimba the White Lion along with many other characters and films.

The film follows the life of a flying squirrel who lives in a forest where a man is relentlessly cutting down trees and disturbing wildlife. Throughout the film Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony plays in harmony with the narrative. The main character evolves and grows throughout the whole film and we are taken through the history of animation itself. A beautifully rendered short film ultimately is about nature’s vengeance against man.

While this narrative is one that has been explored by many great artists, I think the film has something further to add. The classic story of man vs nature has been explored in a peculiar and wonderful way.

While Legend of the Forest is somewhat of a bombardment of content and style - there are some visually stunning scenes and beautiful moments. I would recommend watching the film for the artistry alone. Some sequences are very intense and while some may be put of by the melodrama, I think like me, others have definitely taken this film straight into their hearts.

Probably the weaker part of the film is the fourth movement, which I personally felt was unnecessary. I even had difficulty sitting through this last segment simply because their was a confusion of narrative. What had been said and done was repeating itself and too many new characters were introduced. Perhaps I’m missing something here, but I felt it just like this part was over-doing it.

But all and all I really loved this piece of art, and I’m surprised that it’s so little known. I really found myself relating it between my current ideas and the relationship between man and nature in my current project. I liked the fact that nature fought back in this piece, equally as violently and with as little sympathy. I find that more true to what nature really is rather than just portraying nature as good and man as evil. Both are morally gray, and cruelty is apart of both. I've always been a big fan of Tezuka and his commentary on our relationship with animals, he portrays them simply as our equals - that we needn't fear them or separate ourselves. We are animals too.