The Brave Frog

[Mighty Atomic Pikachu]

Recently I have acquired a Japanese film called 'The Brave Frog". It's pretty hard-to-find, and once you finish watching it the whole way through you're gonna be gald of that. This, my friends, is the single most depressing children's film ever made. Our hero just seems to have rotten luck throughout the film, which just keeps getting rottener and rottener as the movie progresses, with absolutely no releif in sight except for when he finds a positive role model, "Goliath The Giant", who of course is promptly killed off. Leopold, the mayor of Rainbow Pond, dislikes this particular frog and his family, so he is always finding ways to make them miserable. But as these sorts of things happen in movies, the hero falls in love with the mayor's daughter but the mayor won't let her see him and blah blah blah. It's even more tiresome than it sounds.

They came up with a happy ending at the very last minute because they must have realized exactly how depressing the film was. The Mayor has a change of heart, the two lovebirds live happily ever after, etc. It's a "Laugh At Cheetah" ending of sorts-they were hard-pressed for an ending so they chose the first ending that came to mind.

In short, I'm glad they don't make em like this anymore.

[Squishy]

Ooh, I'll have to see THAT one. Japanese anime can be pretty gut-wrenching at times: watch what poor "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind" goes through if you can find it...

A while back, I was searching for "Saiyuuki" (AKA "The Monkey King," AKA "Journey To The West"), and I'm glad to report I nailed it at ChinaSprout.com on VCD (which plays on any DVD system, no region coding).

They have a whole series of this Chinese animated-movie series available, and I purchased parts One and Seven. Part Seven displays a cheaper, less artistic animation company's work, but Part One, "Havoc In Heaven," (and I imagine at least Part Two) is achingly beautiful.

It's entirely in Chinese, and the soundtrack music is loud and obnoxious, and the art is just peachy. In other words, it's a trip, and should be viewed while drunk. Recommended: even if it's not your cup of tea, you should check out the "Monkey King" page at ChinaSprout.com to get a glimpse of the weird art and especially the "Monkey King" book, "The Motherhood River," the astonishing plot of which would send the GOP into a book-burning frenzy if it became noted.

[Warren H.]

Ah, so this is the movie I saw as a little kid that made me sad for days.  "That poor frog!" I kept thinking.