is a 1982 Japanese animated film written and directed by Isao Takahata, based on the short story of the same name by Kenji Miyazawa and featuring the music of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

. It was animated by Oh! Production. The film follows a young

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 ...

named Gauche who aspires to hone his craft while interacting with various animals that visit his house each night. The film received the 1981

Ōfuji Noburō Award The is an animation award given at the Mainichi Film Awards. It is named after Japanese animator Noburō Ōfuji. History Following the death of pioneering animator Noburō Ōfuji in 1961, Mainichi established a new award in his honour to recogni ...

Plot

Goshu lives in a tiny house on the outskirts of town and serves as the cellist for his local orchestra, which is rehearsing the '' Pastoral Symphony'' by

. Goshu disappoints the orchestra with his lesser abilities and the conductor is almost ready to remove him altogether. During the next few nights, Goshu is pestered by visits from a variety of animals (including a cat, a bird, a raccoon dog, and a mouse), each with their own musical requests. However, unbeknownst to Goshu these prompts from the animals guide him in surpassing his mistakes and weaknesses as a cellist, readying him for the upcoming big concert.

Production

The film was produced independently by the small but long-established production company Oh! Production, which would go on to provide supporting animation for many films by Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. It was rare for such a small production company to undertake an entire feature film. Aside from the in-between animation team, most of the film was made by two artists: Takamura Mukuo drawing the backgrounds and Shunji Saida drawing all the key animation. The film's lead key animator, Shunji Saida, learned how to play the cello so that he could observe and authentically animate the finger movements of a cellist. Despite a relatively short runtime of 63 minutes, the film took six years to finish and received acclaim as one of the greatest film adaptations of Miyazawa's writing.Nausicaa.Net
Gauche the Cellist information page
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Release

In 2000,

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

released the Region 2

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

DVD with English subtitles, re-releasing it for the Japanese market in 2003. In 2001, the Region 2 PAL DVD was released in France featuring a French dub. In 2006, a double-disc re-release was put out by Studio Ghibli and Buena Vista Home Entertainment in honor of Kenji Miyazawa's 110th birthday alongside Ghibli's adaption of Miyazawa's '' Taneyamagahara no Yoru''. In 2006, an English-subtitle version was released featuring

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...

audio.Ghibli World
15th of July, Hayao Miyazaki's New Film Taneyamagahara no Yoru & Serohiki no Goshu Release Special
In 2014, a "multi-touch book" app was released by Oh! Production and Onebilling Inc., including illustrations, art boards, a movie trailer, and sakuga key animation.

References

External links

* * {{Isao Takahata 1982 anime films 1980s animated short films Drama anime and manga Fantasy anime and manga Films about cellos and cellists Films based on works by Kenji Miyazawa Films directed by Isao Takahata Japanese animated films Music in anime and manga Philosophical anime and manga Slice of life anime and manga