To me, this movie is perfection.

best movie i've ever seen.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Being someone who likes anime very much, being especially a fan of Hayou Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, 'The Little Norse Prince' was interesting from historical interest and holds up pretty well now.'The Little Norse Prince' isn't perfect. It fares weakest in the dialogue, which is rather stilted and rambling. Some of the animation, though not all (some of it is actually impressive for very early anime), lacks finesse and has a rough around the edges look in particularly the character designs. However, while not loving 'The Little Norse Prince' there was enough here to make me admire it a lot. While the flaws are obvious, there is also a lot to like.As aforementioned, many other parts of the animation do impress, like in the ethereal colours and meticulously detailed and sometimes imaginative backgrounds. The music is haunting and richly beautiful, complementing the tone perfectly.What was particularly admirable too was the storytelling. It is a simple story, without being over-simplified or dumbed down, yet has mature and complex themes that give it an emotional maturity and complexity without being confusing. The characters are interesting and engaging and the voice acting is pretty solidly emotive.All in all, very good and breaks new ground but not one of my favourites. Plenty to admire though and recommended. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This was perhaps the most sophisticated animated feature ever made up to that time, in 1968. It is much more serious and dramatic than any Disney film ever made and shows that animation is equally valid as live action for serious cinema (in fact, maybe even superior, given its exaggerated expressiveness and impressionistic potential). Note: this is not a film for very young children as it deals with very serious matters despite being an animated film made in the 1960's with talking animals.Highly recommended and I think this is a must see film for those that wish to be film buffs.

Little Norse Prince was my first foray into the territory of Japanese animation, later made more popular in the West by that of Studio Ghibli, and it's a mixed effort; a film which had enough in terms of raw energy and that sense of passion or artistic integrity pumped into its animation to make me want to come back for more, but lacked an ability to really keep me entirely interested throughout. I don't think it has the sense of adventure it thinks it has, nor does it entirely make use of its premise and have us feel like we've genuinely watched the transition of a young protagonist, who's been granted a specific test or goal at this early stage in their life, from one thing into another. In essence, the film feels a lot longer than it actually is, and makes the fatal error of introducing a supporting act who ends up more interesting than the lead. Additionally, it gets bogged down in the middle with a subplot to do with a village-set power exchange and all the political strife which comes with it and enraptures the lead when all we want to see is this hero journey onwards and upwards in achieving his quest whilst learn a bit about himself in the process.The film opens in a resounding fashion, with a young boy called Horus fending off a pack of wolves along the rural plains of the ancient Nordic world with a sword and a breathtaking amount of both speed and agility. There is both something quite beautiful as well as ugly in the manner in which, with each swipe of the blade, Horus shifts and slides to-and-fro out of the way and onto the next stretch of pasture as wolves drop all around him, not necessarily killed, but with the next in line eyeing up the next available chance to attack. When all looks lost, and one of the beasts slides a sly anthropomorphic aside to our Horus as the kill looms, the ground gives way and a huge giant made entirely out of stone rises from the Earth scattering the animals but trapping Horus on his shoulder. The opening in this sense is quite magical, a really well rendered battle sequence featuring the wilds of this rural domain at work as a pack of hunters seemingly chase the next meal but coming up against a capable human-being who fends them off before everything, in this apparently enchanted land, is rounded off with a monster appearing from nowhere and now a part of the action.Things develop when Horus pulls from the giant a sword which had been stuck there, this chance encounter leading Horus to pursue a mission on which if the sword is successfully reforged, he will garner the right for a promotion into king-hood. It additionally turns out there was indeed a purpose for the wolves' being there; an off screen evil force had sent them to thwart Horus for whatever reasons in whatever capacity. Horus heads across rivers and seas to his old stomping ground, a village once torn apart by an evil which manifested itself within and tore everybody apart. He is there in his attempt to reforge that sword, and in the process garner both the respectability as well as the power an individual in the mould of Horus has the ability to achieve. Along the way, we observe him encounter an array of individuals with power able to match his own; people using such abilities and weapons for a means of bad and there are meek lessons to be learnt.Much more interesting is that of the character of Hilda (Ichihara), a girl as young as Horus whose voice is sharp and siren-like; their first interaction down by the ports of this small community, beside the waters, fitting in that sense and made even more so when we spot that she sits atop a shipwreck of some kind. Hilda is the lone survivor of a village of her own, a village which was destroyed under similar circumstances to that of Horus'. She is a loner, an outcast when brought back by Horus; her frayed beliefs and ethics clashing with the populous where duty vs. choice is at the forefront of her refusal to sew like all the 'good women' seemingly do in this community thus tying her in with the Horus we saw in the opening as a character unbounded by what's expected of them and possessing somewhat of a free spirited attitude. It is unfortunate her story and her presence overtakes that of the lead.As things unfold and Hilda's true identity, indeed prerogative, for being there becomes clearer; we sense Horus' quest undermined by the deeper tribulations and emotional conflict Hilda suffers. When the time comes for Horus to confront evil and have a big showdown at the end wherein catalysts and epiphanies and such may play out, it is with which Hilda's off screen presence and tale that we are preoccupied. The film stutters in its speed, often breezing along like a good adventure should but then unevenly pausing for more mediative moments. One of its bigger crimes is that it unfolds in an enchanted world, although often feels unenchanted – the film an unbalanced effort which has a sturdy amount of character and wonder but leaves one relatively underwhelmed on the whole.

excerpt, more at my location - Developed and created in 1968, Isao Takahata's first feature-length outing fuses Japanese and Norse philosophies and mythologies into the charmingly grown-up children's tale that is The Little Norse Prince. While the impact of The Little Norse Prince resonates even in today's modern anime, as an individual film, it is a triumphant hallmark of sublime animation and an adult story with genuine heart, warmth, danger and menace that the talking squirrels of Disney's preceding '60s sword film (The Sword In The Stone) could only dream of achieving. The originality that The Little Norse Prince exudes is nothing short of impressive, as his anti-aging formula transports us back in time to makes us feel young and vulnerable. While it may not be the greatest anime of all time, it is nothing short of being the most important.