Hakujaden, Legend of the White Snake

Hakujaden, Legend of The White Snake, also known as The White Snake Enchantress (as the worldwide, literal, English title), Panda and The Magic Serpent (as the English title in the U.S. and the U.K.), and Panda and The Flying Serpent (as the alternative, worldwide, English, title) is a 1958, Japanese, anime film. It is based on a traditional, Chinese folk tale of the same title. It was produced by Toei Doga/Toei Animation and is notable for being among the earliest, color anime films, the first, feature-length anime by Toei Animation, and one of the first three anime film imports in the U.S. with the two others being Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke (a.k.a. Magic Boy) and Saiyuki (a.k.a. Alakazam the Great), all of which are by the same studio.

Plot
A forbidden love between two who are as different as can be. As a youngster, a Chinese boy named Xu-Xian was the owner of a pet white snake before his parent made him release it. Years later, Xu-Xian would meet the same, white snake again during a tumultuous storm and the serpent reveals its true form to him as a princess spirit named Bai-Niang. They fall for each other, but a monk named Fa-Hai is determined to keep them apart, since he believes Princess Bai-Niang is a malevolent spirit. Xu-Xian's two kinds of pet pandas, a great panda known simply as Panda and a lesser Panda named Mimi decide to help by searching for her so Xu-Xian and Princess Bai-Niang. After Fa-Hai realizes his error, he lets the couple be and Bai-Niang relinquishes her enchanted powers to stay human, and be with Xu-Xian.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The fact that it's one of the first, color anime, among the earliest works by Toei animation, and amongst those anime films by that company to be released to the U.S. makes it such a milestone. This and the other, early Toei animation films would give insight of what more would come later.
 * 2) It is one of the early Toei-animated films that is notable for being reminiscent of Disney's fairytale films before Toei animation branched out and became more versatile, but it still has other things about it that make it stand apart from those.
 * 3) The art style being based on Chinese art is accurate to that and the animation is decent.
 * 4) Marvelous writing of a well-organized and executed story.
 * 5) Great, likable, memorable characters, each of whom brings something significant to their roles.
 * 6) The character designs are just as true to Chinese art.
 * 7) Suitable use of mostly traditional Chinese music for the score and soundtrack.
 * 8) The voices in the original dub are acted and delivered well. The fact that the Japanese dub features only two voice actors in the cast, each voicing multiple characters, is impressive.
 * 9) Several funny moments with the animal characters.
 * 10) The dialogue is flawless.
 * 11) It gives the point of the "love conquers all" theme in a way that is all its own.
 * 12) It does a fine job at representing Chinese culture.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some viewers may find changes made for the English dub, like referring to Mimi as a cat, unnecessary. However, this case is somewhat understandable, since many Americans at that time hadn't heard of nor seen a real red panda, thus being unfamiliar with one.
 * 2) The English dub isn't as great, satisfying, nor perfect.

Trivia

 * Future anime director, Rintaro, had his first task in animation by working on the art in this film as an in-betweener when he was 17.

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