A very old crocodile, so old that he had witnessed the building of the pyramids, was suffering from
rheumatism, and no longer able to catch his food. In desperation, he decided to eat his great grand
son. Although his thousands of years of longevity entitled him to much respect, the family decided he
would have to be put down.
Unable to bear the disrespect of his family, the old crocodile said goodbye to the Nile. One day the
old crocodile met an octopus. The octopus treated her new friend to a variety of fish that she caught
just for him. When the night fell, he couldn’t restrain himself from eating one of the
octopus’s legs. Since then, the old crocodile began to help himself to the octopus’ leg
every night…
(Source: AniDB)
#~~~Toshi wo Totta Wani / The Old Crocodile~~~#
#~~~年をとった鰐~~~#
~~~
~~~
#~~~Synopsis~~~#
~~~The Old Crocodile is an underrated fairy tale about a greedy crocodile and his friend, a caring
octopus. This story tells you about how desperate one crocodile (or person) can be to get food.
~~~
#~~~Story and Characters~~~#
~~~ There are two characters; The Octopus who is a caring soul who wants to help the crocodile to find
food, while sacrificing her own food at the same time. The Crocodile however finds himself in a
situation he can't control, since being an crocodile he finds the urge to eat whatever is in front of
him, regardless of what it is, and isn't aware of the octopus's generosity.
I should say here that both characters are metaphors for human kindness and human greed.. One of them
goes out of her way to provide food for another being, completely ignoring her own hunger. The other
one only cares for food, and doesn't care about anything else.
The story is very simple and as stated above, the crocodile wants food and the octopus has food to
give. But the crocodile gets too hungry, and tries to eat the octopus's legs. The octopus does not
realize why she is giving food to such a selfish creature until it is too late... But I really don't
want to ruin the story for you, so I will say no more.
~~~
~~~
~~~
#~~~Art and Animation~~~#
~~~ The artwork is hand-drawn in an ink-blotch style, and the backgrounds are always in sepia tone -
this brown, white and black colour scheme does work though, since the story makes you forget about
those colours as the anime goes on.
I find the animation to be cute, since it's hand-drawn so you can say it's almost personal? I like
that about this anime. I am certain the artist had to draw lots of frames just for this anime, please
remember that when you watch this.
~~~
#~~~Sound, Music and Voice Acting~~~#
~~~The sounds effects are little to note, except the sound of the waves.
The music is based off Sudanese traditional music, appearing more towards the end of the anime.
The voices are original in English, and the narration by Peter Narakan is perfect with his calming
voice. He manages to put such much emotion into a short monologue. His voice reminds me a little bit
of Arthur Lowe from the 'Mr. Men' animated series from my childhood (or at least, what I remember of
it).
I believe you can also find a French dub and a German dub if you look in the right places, but I
haven't watched those versions so I can't judge on their quality.
As far as I know, there is no Japanese voice option despite being a Japanese anime. I can't find a
Japanese dub, just a version with Japanese subtitles with English voices.
~~~
~~~
~~~
#~~~Final Thoughts~~~#
~~~ A short story you do not want to miss if you like to think about philosophical things in nature.
The only thing is that a lot of people assume this is a children's anime because it's a fairy tale and
the anime is rated 'G for all ages'. I personally don't think this is a problem.
If you want a nice short story to watch, then please watch this. It's only 13 minutes long and it's
not a bad animation. ~~~
~~~Thank you for reading my review! If you see any mistakes then please let me know. I would greatly
appreciate any advice you can give me.~~~