#«The Deer King» – Worth seeing fantasy spectacle with weaknesses

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“«The Deer King» – Worth seeing fantasy spectacle with weaknesses
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The time has come this weekend: The feature film “The Deer King”, which was already announced at Animagic, will be released in German and Austrian cinemas this week. You can find out in our review whether the fantasy spectacle is worth going to the cinema.

Trailer:

This is what «The Deer King» is about:

The kingdoms of Zol and Akhafa are at war when a deadly disease, the “black wolf fever”, stops the invasion of the all-powerful Zol and leads to a seemingly peaceful coexistence. Many years later, Zol is again attacked by the mysterious plague that was thought to have been eradicated. Because in an area ruled by wolves, a momentous incident occurs in a salt mine. There, criminals have to serve their sentences as slaves until the end of their lives.

Among them is the former commander Van from Akhafa.

One night wolves descend on the mine and in a bloody slaughter kill almost all the slaves, overseers and workers. There are only two survivors: Van and a little girl named Yuna miraculously escape death. The former commander takes care of Yuna and embarks on the journey with her. By chance they reach a small village where they lead a peaceful life, at least for a short time. Because peace doesn’t last long. The deadly disease is spreading and threatening humanity. The desperate search for an effective medicine and fights for it suddenly bring Van and Yuna into new, even greater dangers.

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Criticism:

“The Deer King” by director duo Masashi Andō and Masayuki Miyaji is a fantasy epic à la “Princess Mononoke” that uses a complex basic plot and also visually has many borrowings from the classic by grandmaster Hayao Miyazaki. Not surprisingly, Andō worked on Mononoke himself, while Miyaji was given the opportunity to serve as an assistant director on the anime milestone Spirited Away. The vita of the two directors speaks volumes. Unfortunately, «The Deer King» does not quite come close to the works just mentioned. But it is always worth seeing.

mysterious world

This is primarily due to the thoroughly exciting basic plot. The mystery of the mysterious “plague of wolves”, which apparently only kills the Zol people, takes interesting turns again and again and is a driving force of the film. The numerous nightmare-like visions of our protagonist Van and his entanglement with the present are also interesting points of view. The world of “The Deer King” is peppered with all sorts of myths and a rich past that makes the world appear plastic at all times.

It doesn’t bother that the film develops rather leisurely after the fast-paced first few minutes. Despite the essentially epic story of fate, betrayal and family, «The Deer King» mostly keeps tones low. Instead of action and bombast there are more dialogues than escalating fights between the two enemy peoples Zol and Akhafa in the foreground. In general, the film comes across as very mature. Humor is largely saved, but complex topics such as political intrigues or the refusal of scientific progress are in the foreground. Not least because of the increased level of violence, the film is primarily aimed at older viewers. Despite the slow pace of the narrative, one shouldn’t lean back too much: especially at the beginning, «The Deer King» introduces a handful of characters and conflicts that can quickly become confusing.

Too many templates, not enough time

This brings us to the film’s greatest weakness. Despite the slowed-down narrative style, «The Deer King» only sparsely manages to give the wealth of characters real depth. Due to a lack of time, many characters that are essentially exciting appear, often only in fragments. And even if some dialogues are quite exciting and make you think, they unfortunately too often serve to convey an overloaded plot. Especially towards the end, when the events unfold, you as a viewer are quickly overwhelmed. You can tell at any time that “The Deer King” is based on a two-part novel followed by a manga adaptation. The multi-layered world is at best touched upon in the almost 2 hours, but it doesn’t manage to capture its complexity in such a short time. An adaptation in series form might have worked even better at this point. There are enough reasons for this, because the film keeps flashing the quality of the templates.

Poignant music

The gripping soundtrack by composer Harumi Fuuki should not go unmentioned. This oscillates between tender brass and epic strings and consistently underscores the different scenarios. Fuuki knows how to use her music appropriately and thus makes the soundtrack the small highlight of the film. This should probably unfold even better on the big screen than in front of the home screens.

A few more words about the animation: “The Deer King” always looks worth seeing, but you shouldn’t expect any animation fireworks such as Mamoru Hosuda’s “Belle”. Similar to the somewhat reserved plot, the animation only rarely comes to the fore. However, in Van’s fevered dreams, Production IG occasionally flexes its animation muscles.

Famoses Voice-Over

In terms of synchronization work, a lot of work was done. In short: David Nathan, who was sorely missed as the green devil in the last DBZ offshoot, is a force. It doesn’t matter whether it’s melancholic, loving, broken or angry: the taciturn van is always noticeable thanks to Nathan’s masterful use of speech. Especially the relationship with little Yuna (also convincing: Elisa von Tettenborn) seems organic and real in every scene. With all the subplots, the father-daughter relationship clearly stands out – a clear strength of the film. All in all, Kölnsynchron has done a great job: every speaker role is well cast and convinces across the board.

Conclusion

Despite the somewhat overloaded plot, “The Deer King” is a film well worth seeing, which scores with great voices and an interesting attitude. The film is worth seeing for the bombastic soundtrack alone, which really comes into its own on the big screen. Fans of “Princess Mononoke” and more mature stories in general who are not looking for non-stop action should also consider going to the cinema. In the end, «The Deer King» is a beautiful fantasy fairy tale with a few weaknesses that you can definitely overlook.

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