Gauche the Cellist (1998)

This is essentially a highly condensed remake of the famous 1982 Isao Takahara release. It tells the story of Gauche, a struggling cellist in a provincial orchestra. He is visited by four talking animals - a cat, a cuckoo, a tanuki, and a field mouse - on successive nights They help him to improve his playing, just in time for orchestra’s concert performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.

Genres: Animation, Music, Family, Fantasy

Stars: Mizue Otsuka, Takeshi Kusao, Saori Kaneda, Ayumi Furuyama, Atsushi Kisaichi