A Thousand and One Nights
19696.7movie
People
Aldin, a vagabond water vendor, embarks of a series of fantastical and tragic misadventures through the Middle East in search of love, fortune, and power.
Aldin, a vagabond water vendor, embarks of a series of fantastical and tragic misadventures through the Middle East in search of love, fortune, and power.
Anime 101: Film 60 Spirited but massively flawed. There's segments of A Thousand and One Nights that are almost transcendental, but it's all in service of a confused and incredibly meandering narrative. It wants to tell a "rise and fall" story along the lines of Citizen Kane, but what happens in practice is that the protagonist is dirt poor until he finds a magical boat, we skip fifteen years ...
It was critically well-received in Japan as well as being a significantly marketable triumph, and it's understandable to see why as the animation has the stylised and characteristic integrity that is expected from Tezuka’s output. It did manage to secure a minimal release within the US, but it chiefly missed the mark in attracting more extensive global attention.For a Japanese animated movie in 1969, too, the animation here is a triumph. The issue is that the story falters and is messy and nonsensical in places, and I can’t say it’s a great film, or even one…
