With impressionistic watercolor and charcoal animation, this adaptation of a Japanese folktale begins with the titular Princess discovered in a stalk of bamboo. She rapidly ages, cared for by her adoptive parents in the country, an accelerated adolescence well suited to the strengths of animation and cinema. In fairytale fashion, suitors line up to woo the Princess with material comforts, but she has other ideas. Within this classic story structure, Takahata’s dedication to representing the specificity and wonder of the everyday is ever present. Of his final movie, Takahata said, “This is a film that affirms the earth.”