Journey to the West (1960 Toei Animation Version)
A 1960 Toei Animation feature film credited to Osamu Tezuka, marking one of the earliest Japanese animated features to reach the American market.
Journey to the West (Japanese: 西遊記; English: Alakazam the Great) is a Japanese animated feature film released on August 14, 1960. Produced by Toei Animation, it was co-directed by Daisaku Shirakawa and Taiji Yabushita, with Osamu Tezuka credited as general director—though Tezuka later admitted that he had actually only visited the studio to pose for promotional photographs. The film was Toei Animation's third color feature film following The White Snake (1958). The screenplay was adapted from the manga My Sun Wukong (Boku no Son Goku), which Tezuka began serializing in 1952, and incorporates many plot points from the original Journey to the West novel. The story follows the adventures of the Handsome Monkey King, Sun Wukong of Flower-Fruit Mountain, who, after being arrogant and insolent, was imprisoned under the Five-Elements Mountain by Rulai Buddha for five hundred years. He later journeys west in search of the scriptures alongside Tripitaka, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing, battling demons such as the Bull Demon King, the Rakshasa Woman, and the Single-Horned King along the way. Introduced to North America in 1961 by American International Pictures (AIP), the film was re-edited and re-scored, with teen idol Frankie Avalon singing the theme song. It was one of the first Japanese animated features to enter the mainstream American market and holds significant place in the early history of anime's reception in North America.