Panda Kopanda and the Rainy-Day Circus on VHS

This is a nice find from one of my recent Ebay searches: a Japanese VHS release of Panda Kopanda and the Rainy-Day Circus, the second of two Panda short films created by Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoichi Kotabe. I'm surprised to see that both cartoons are not included on this tape, but such things were common back in the day. All the better to get more money from the parents.

Of the two Panda cartoons, I like this one more. They're both great fun, of course, but Rainy-Day Circus has a wide and colorful cast of characters, a bouncy tiger, a runaway train, and a massive flood. You can't beat that.

Panda Kopanda always seems to fall through the cracks: too short to be considered a "movie," not enough episodes to be considered "television." Not many Miyazaki and Takahata fans are even aware that it exists. But that's a challenge that time will solve, as it has solved that same problem for the Studio Ghibli catalog.

Remember that Panda Kopanda is available on DVD from Discotek. It's a solid release and belongs in your movie library.

Photos: Panda Kopanda and the Rainy-Day Circus (1973)

Here are some nice DVD screenshots from the 1973 short film, Panda Kopanda and the Rainy-Day Circus. This is the second of the two Panda cartoons made by Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki, Yoichi Kotabe and much of the old Toei Doga crew. It's also the better one, more interesting and funny and visually diverse. This roughly-half-hour cartoon is packed with scenarios and funny situations.

I really do wish more of these little movies had been made, at least one or two more. However, time moves quickly, and only a year later, Takahata, Miyazaki and Kotabe unleashed Heidi, Girl of the Alps to blockbuster success, leading the anime revolution of the 1970s. They would unleash an unparalleled string of animated classics over the next four decades, barely catching their breath.

Panda Kopanda is a children's cartoon, and there are no pretensions otherwise. There are no complex deeper themes or preachy moral lessons, no cynical attempts to sell toys or merchandise. Thank Heavens for that. These movies are criminally underrated (a new English-language dub would help a lot), but at least they're available on DVD, courtesy of Discotek.

Little touches that I enjoy: the sight of a rural town massively flooded, a precursor to Miyazaki's own Ponyo; the shot of Baby Panda being chased by a sea of hands, again a precursor to the flashback scene in Nausicaa; a bumbling burglar voiced by Yasuo Yamada (Lupin); a runaway circus train, packed with animals, crashing through a town and stopping at the mayor's front gate. Everything is cheerful, everyone is having fun. What more can you ask for?