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is the first color anime feature film, released in 1958. It was one of the first three anime films to be released in America, under the title ''Panda and the Magic Serpent'', premiering in 1961, the month after ''Magic Boy''.〔("Magic Boy (1959)". ) IMDbPro. Retrieved 13 January 2014.〕 It is also known variously as ''Legend of the White Snake'', ''The Great White Snake'' and ''The White Snake Enchantress''. ==Background== The film is essentially an adaptation of the Song Dynasty Chinese folktale "Legend of the White Snake" (白蛇傳).〔"(Chinese Mythology )." ''Bilingual Book Explanation of Legend of the White Snake.'' Retrieved on 2006-12-08.〕 Shin Uehara adapted the folktale and kept the Chinese-style characters and names. The decision of a Chinese story being used as the concept blueprint came from Toei president Hiroshi Ōkawa, who wanted to strike a tone of reconciliation with the Asian neighbors.〔"(Anipages Daily )." ''Anipages Daily.'' Retrieved on 2006-12-08.〕 Given the point in time, the film pushed Japanese animation technology to the limit. The film was a large scale major project, involving a total of 13,590 staff; surprisingly, it only took eight months to finish.〔"(Masterpiece of last 50 years )." ''Japanese Animated Film Festival.'' Retrieved on 2006-12-08.〕 And while the film received honors at the Venice Children's Film Festival in Italy in 1959, it was regarded as a disappointment when released to the United States on March 15, 1961 by Global Pictures. Historically, this film marked Tōei Dōga's first attempt to follow the example of American feature animation studios and become the so-called "Disney of the east." The US version made changes to the film such as interpreting the small red panda, Mimi, as a cat.〔Clements, Jonathan. McCarthy Helen. () (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5〕 In addition, all traces of the Japanese production teams were removed from the credits. Rintaro, who would later go on to become a well known and respected director of Japanese animation, had his first job in the animation industry (at age 17) as an in-between animator on this film. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Tale of the White Serpent」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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