The Deer King premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival, and will be released by Gkids in early 2022.
It doesn't take long for The Deer King to start walking familiar ground. From its deer-riding warrior to a population oppressed by imperial conquest to an exploration of humankind’s terrible damage to the environment, it touches on themes that have been addressed plenty in other animated works. But The Deer King quickly makes a case for itself with a keen eye for complex characters, gorgeous animation, and a fascinating world with poignant messages and an even more profound focus on the importance of medical science in times of crisis and superstition.
For his directorial debut, Masashi Ando draws from his experience as a character designer in fantasy animated films like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, where his co-director, Masayuki Miyaji, also worked as an assistant director. Together, they craft a film that throws you in the deep end of a decades-long conflict. Despite The Deer King having a super-dense setting rich with history and lore, it never feels overwhelming. From the opening scene, we’re introduced to enough new concepts to fill a booklet, yet the movie trusts that its visuals will be enough to convey the information without relying on exposition.
At the center of this conflict is Van (Shinichi Tsutsumi), the leader of a group of warriors who fought back against the invading Empire of Zol, and lost. Now, he’s on the run after escaping imprisonment, protecting a young girl named Yuna (Hisui Kimura) as a pack of wolves -- who embody a mysterious supernatural disease -- attack them. As grand as its world may appear at first, The Deer King is a rather intimate story of found family, all grounded by the relationship between the stoic warrior Van and his outgoing adoptive daughter. Having worked as an animation director on Your Name, Ando brings the same energetic and grounded character animation to The Deer King, elevating the voice acting to its hardest emotional impact with subtle facial expressions and strains of muscles that make the smaller, more personal scenes feel as visually impressive and essential as the large-scale action.
On that note, The Deer King is easily one of the most stunning animated features this year. The art direction makes this a lush world that feels lived-in and full of rich details. Perhaps most impressive is the way it manages to give believable weight to the characters. Whether it's something as simple as a young girl tripping and falling, or a soldier getting punched, the movements feel realistic to the point where fight scenes actually hurt. At a time when live-action movies rely so much on digital doubles that feel like weightless dolls, The Deer King is a refreshing throwback to a period when 2D animation reigned supreme.
On the surface, the film shares some similarities with Princess Mononoke due to their shared themes of environmentalism and imperialism, but The Deer King quickly distances itself from comparison by focusing on science. Billed as a "medical fantasy," it’s based on a novel by Nahoko Uehashi, which even won a Japanese prize for medical fiction. Ando and Miyaji use the fantasy setting as a means to explore how societies deal with a disease they don't understand, and how superstition, cultural beliefs, and a lack of technology often get in the way of scientific reason.
Van's warrior past may give the film its title, but the true hero of the film is Hossal (Ryōma Takeuchi), a doctor who desperately tries to find a cure for the mysterious illness that only seems to target one group of people. Seeing The Deer King tackle religious anti-vaxxers and racism derived from a pandemic takes a heightened poignancy in 2021, giving the film's themes and its ultimate message about overcoming differences in the name of science all the more urgent.
The Deer King is a film dense with ideas, themes, and lore. It introduces a world on the brink of war, with social unrest, a history of imperial subjugation, and a belief in divine punishment -- which are all simply the results of a much larger story that we don’t see play out on screen. Yet it manages to tell a concise story about found families, supernatural diseases, and breaking the cycle of violence for the greater good with stunning animation and a grounded, emotional core.
As the end credits coda shows the fates of some characters in the years after the film ends, you can't help but wish to spend more time in this rich world. As a directorial debut, The Deer King is a strong calling card announcing the arrival of a powerhouse in animation, and a talent worth keeping an eye on.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3ATUa9q
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