Wonderful Movie

Admirable film.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

As one of the first anime films to be released in the U.S., I only wish this film had been better. It's perfectly average in almost every way. The story centers around a monkey named Alakazam. He's your annoyingly arrogant protagonist that learns humility. It plays like a typical East Asian legend. But events just sort of happen one after the other. He becomes a king for some reason, a quick and vague one minute montage and he knows magic, oh hey Buddha when did you get here? The animation is passable for the 1960s, though nothing special. I felt like the movie couldn't stay still. Something always has to be happening, and god forbid there be no noise for 2 seconds. This is supposedly a musical, but I won't call it that. There's about 5 or so "songs" that only last half a minute each. The dub is alright considering there isn't too much to work off here.I wouldn't necessary call this a bad movie though. There's definitely some creative parts every now and then. Particularly some of the magic they use. I could see some children being fairly entertained by this. But it's not a film worth repeated viewings. It's easy to see how it didn't do very well in the U.S. A comparable film from this time would be The Sword in the Stone. It's a coming of age story with magic just like Alakazam and came out in 1963, but was executed much better. If you want a small snapshot of anime in the 1960s, then this isn't a terrible place to look.

I remember seing this film when I was quite young, probably six or seven. For many years, I could remember several things about it, but not the name. With the help of an Internet movie buff, I figured out the title, got a copy and watched it again. It was every bit as good as I remembered it. The characters are well developed, interesting, and at times, quite humorous. The story was engaging and exciting. I can see now why it made such am impression on me. Much better, in my opinion that the more recent and more highly touted "Spirited Away," which, while I enjoyed it, I found dark and disturbing, and also devoid of point or meaning.

I was stunned to see this listing; I have been trying to find this movie for years. It may be lame, a terrible dubbed version of a chopped up hack job, but I still have dreams based on this film 30 years later. It would show up on the afternoon movie program and I would always greet it like an old friend; I would love to see it again.

I loved this movie in the 1960's when it used to play regularly on a television channel in Buffalo, New York. What a shock when I saw it recently! The dubbed American version is disjointed and pretty silly, but that's not the big surprise. It is clear from watching it now that the Japanese film underlying it is a retelling of part of the epic Chinese classic, The Journey to the West, written by Wu Cheng-En in the 16th century. In The Journey to the West -- the standard English translation is by Arthur Waley -- the monk Tripitaka is travelling to India seeking rare Buddhist scriptures, which were later housed in the Big Goose Pagoda still standing today in Xi'an, a city best-known to Westerners for its terracotta warriors. The monk has many adventures along the way, accompanied by his friends Sun Wu-Kong / Monkey (here called Alakazam) and Chu Pa-Kie / Pigsy. Throughout the Far East, these characters are known to everyone and are fixtures of popular culture. Hot-tempered, impetuous Monkey / Alakazam is the particular favourite of little boys of all ages. Watch this movie and try to guess what is actually going on in the Japanese film.