The Tale of the White Serpent

The Tale of the White Serpent , Hakujaden? is the first color anime feature film, released in 1958. It was one of the first three anime films to be released in America, under the title Panda and the Magic Serpent, premiering in 1961, the month after Magic Boy. It is also known variously as Legend of the White Snake, The Great White Snake and The White Snake Enchantress.

Given the point in time, the film pushed Japanese animation technology to the limit. The film was a large scale major project, involving a total of 13,590 staff surprisingly, it only took eight months to finish. And while the film received honors at the Venice Childrens Film Festival in Italy in 1959, it was regarded as a disappointment when released to the United States on March 15, 1961 by Global Pictures. Historically, this film marked Tei Dgas first attempt to follow the example of American feature animation studios and become the socalled Disney of the east.The US version made changes to the film such as interpreting the small red panda, Mimi, as a cat. In addition, all traces of the Japanese production teams were removed from the credits. ........

Source: Wikipedia