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TMS Makes Anime Film of Hal's Flute by Anpanman's Yanase
posted on by Egan Loo
The 24th Tokyo International Film Festival announced on Wednesday that it will host the world premiere of the anime film Hal's Flute (Hal no Fue) next month. The anime studio TMS is adapting the 2009 picture book of the same name that Anpanman manga creator Takashi Yanase published when he was 90 years old.
The story follows a racoon-like tanuki creature named Hal who finds an abandoned human baby. Hal names the baby Pal and decides to transform into a human mother to raise him. (Tanuki are known in Japanese folklore for their ability to transform into any object or creature they desire.)
Hiroshi Kawamata directed this 48-minute film after overseeing the Rainbow Magic: Return to Rainspell Island film for the British company HIT Entertainment. He also directed the women's television anime special "Kawamo o Suberu Kaze" (Otona Joshi no Anime Time) and the Soreike! Anpanman: Baikinman vs Baikinman!? film, and he previously worked on episodes of Disney's Gargoyles.
Michiru Shimada (Shugo Chara!, Before Green Gables) wrote Hal's Flute's screenplay, and Akihiro Komori (Manga Aesop Monogatari, Space Ace) wrote the music. Keiko Toda and Masako Nozawa lead the voice cast.
Tokyo International Film Festival will also show the world premiere of Hiroshi Nishikiori's anime film version of Mary Pope Osborne's children's fantasy adventure book series Magic Tree House. Another animated entry is Eric Khoo's film adaptation of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life autobiographical manga.
The festival will run from October 22 to October 30.
Images © Takashi Yanase/TMS
© Mary Pope Osborne/Magic Tree House Production Committee
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