The White Snake Enchantress (film)

Xu Xian, a young boy, once owned a pet snake in West Lake until his parents forced him to give her up. Years pass and during a violent storm, the snake magically transforms into the beautiful princess Bai-Niang. Bai-Niang finds Xu-Xian, but the lovers are separated by a local monk, Fa-Hai, who believes that Bai-Niang is an evil spirit. Xu Xian's two panda pets, Panda and Mimi, try to find Xu Xian. In the end, Bai-Niang gives up her magical powers and remains in human form to prove that her love for Xu Xian is genuine. ==Cast==

The film is essentially an adaptation of the Song dynasty Chinese folktale Legend of the White Snake (白蛇傳). 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 Doga president Hiroshi Ōkawa, who wanted to strike a tone of reconciliation with the Asian neighbors. 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. 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 July 8, 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. 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-betweener on this film. ==Reception==

In 2001, the staff of Animage listed The White Snake Enchantress as the most important anime of all time. ==See also==