Despite initial rumors indicating they’d be shutting their doors, Studio Ghibli will hopefully work things out so they can continue to produced works of art in the world of animation. Their second-to-last feature (for the time being) comes from Grave of the Fireflies director Isao Takahata and will be landing in U.S. theaters next month, so we have a new full-length trailer for the occasion.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya follows a bamboo cutter, Taketori no Okina, who slices open a stalk to find a thumb-sized baby inside, one who grows into a princess named Kaguya. When she grows up, she calls upon five pining men to find memorably wedding gifts for her. We were luke-warm on Princess Kaguya when it played at Cannes, though were willing to concede that its formalism is “rapturous,” with “images that are striking for their simplicity, not density.”
Check out the trailer and poster below which give us a first listen of the English-language voice cast, backed by Chloe Grace Moretz, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges, Daniel Dae Kim, James Marsden, Oliver Platt, John Cho, George Segal and Dean Cain:
Synopsis:
Legendary Studio Ghibli cofounder Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko) revisits Japan’s most famous folktale in this gorgeous, hand-drawn masterwork, decades in the making. Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter (James Caan) and his wife (Mary Steenburgen), a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady (Chloë Grace Moretz). The mysterious young princess enthralls all who encounter her – but ultimately she must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime.
From the studio that brought you Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and The Wind Rises comes a powerful and sweeping epic that redefines the limits of animated storytelling and marks a triumphant highpoint within an extraordinary career in filmmaking for director Isao Takahata.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya will open on October 17.