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Momotaro, Sacred Sailors Screening in Birmingham on October 5

There will be a screening of the restored edition of the 1944 anime film Momotaro, Sacred Sailors (Momotaro - Umi no Shinpei) at Birrmingham's MAC cinema on Saturday October 5 at 2 p.m. The film is often considered the first feature-length animated film produced in Japan.

The film was produced as World War II propaganda. The story follows Momotaro, who, according to the traditional Japanese fairy tail, was born from a peach and joins with three animal companions to defeat monsters. In this version, Momotaro is running a Japanese naval base and fighting the Allied Powers.

Mitsuyo Seo directed the 74-minute black-and-white film after first directing the 37-minute film Momotaro's Sea Eagle, which has a similar premise and is sometimes considered to be the first feature-length animated film in Japan based on different definitions of "feature-length." A crew of 70 staff members created Momotaro, Sacred Sailors using 50,000 animation cels on a budget of 270,000 yen (equivalent to about 600 million yen or US$5.5 million today). After the war the film was believed to be lost until a negative copy was discovered in 1983 and re-released in 1984.

In addition, the Birmingham Anime Festival is still screening as of writing, with the following screenings forthcoming:

Friday September 27

8 p.m. - The End of Evangelion, directed by Hideaki Anno (Mockingbird)

Saturday September 28

3.30 p.m. - Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', directed by Tadayoshi Yamamuro (Mockingbird)

5.30 p.m - Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, directed by Tetsuro Kodama (Mockingbird)

Sunday September 29

11.30 a.m - Penguin Highway, directed by Hiroyasu Ishida (Mockingbird)

2 p.m. - Belle, directed by Mamoru Hosoda (Mockingbird)

4.30 p.m. - Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below (aka Journey to Agartha), directed by Makoto Shinkai (Mockingbird), pictured left.

7 p.m. - your name., direccted by Makoto Shinkai (Mockingbird)

Thursday October 3

7.30 p.m. - JUNK HEAD, stop-motion film directed by Takahide Hori (MAC Birmingham)

Friday October 4

7.30 p.m. - Perfect Blue, directed by Satoshi Kon, plus 'The Evolution of Horror Podcast' (Mockingbird)

Saturday October 5

5 p.m. - ON-GAKU: Our Sound, directed by Kenji Iwaisawa (MAC Birmingham)

7.30 p.m. - A Silent Voice, directed by Naoko Yamada (MAC Birmingham)

Sunday October 6

4 p.m. - The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, directed by Tomohisa Taguchi (Mockingbird)

6 p.m. - Psycho-Pass Providence, directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani (Mockingbird)

8.30 p.m. - Memories, an anthology film with segments directed by Kōji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura and Katsuhiro Ōtomo