Tarou-san no Kisha

Tarou-san is a little boy who loves to play train with his friends. One day, his dad brings him home an electric train set. Overjoyed, he plays with it long into the night. When it is finally time for bed, Tarou cuddles up next to his new train set, and dreams he is on a train with many funny animals who cause various wacky hijinks.

This delightful little silent short combines live action with animation. A novel idea, and it works well. The retro animation lover or silent film nerd will both enjoy it equally. Even if you can't ... read the Japanese title cards, you can still understand the story.

The wacky animals are enjoyable and the story itself is very charming. This is a good start to see where Japanese animation began. Also, seeing the clothes & household of late-1920s Japan is very interesting. It's well worth 15 minutes of your time to see this little piece of history.

At first, I was thrown off, since it began with actual film and didn't quickly transition into animation. But when the animation began, I was delighted to find that for once, I wasn't the slightest bit creeped out by it. Normally, very old animation scares me a bit, but despite the odd looking faces on some of the animals, the different things done with the very few resources I'm sure were available at the time are outstanding. The story was cute and funny, too, which caused me to really enjoy it. I even laughed a couple of times, which is more than I can say ... for some of today's intentionally comedic short series/movies. The music is basically a repetitive loop, but there are some breaks in it which are nice. Additionally, the historical aspect is appealing enough for me to recommend any fan of Japanese animation/film/culture to give it a go.

Rate an 8
Seen via English Subtitled on just the cartoon everything else raw
art film
silent production
Special Note: The cartoon itself is about 6 plus minutes.

Story
Memories, we have so many of them. The best memories one could have aside from their younger years is their children. More importantly making their day. A child has a strong desire for ___. He is reward with ____. As he is about to nod off his dream comes alive. To see that animation unfold along with that mini live show was a beautiful introduction to this cartoon. As for the ending it is what you would expect. Although, you get to ... see the part the kid played which was an interesting idea.

Art
-black and white
-From scenery to background no issues on clarity.

Sound
The version i saw had background music. Which blended well to the cartoon. Not sure if the original did as well.

Character
Bios are good for characters but was not needed here. Mainly because the cartoon played off the stereotypes cultures have brought on.

Enjoyment
A kind hearted piece. There is nothing negative about this film. A childhood dream come to true mostly.