You put this on expecting a folk hero cartoon and end up watching a piece of animation history that nearly didn't survive. Hong Kil-dong is Korea's first feature-length animated film, hand-inked in 1967, and for decades it existed mostly as a rumor until a print surfaced and got restored. The setup swings big from frame one: a child born into hurricanes and wicked spirits, showing up with strength and cunning that nobody in medieval Korea can account for. From there it's pure vow-keeping adventure, a boy binding himself to his family, to the emperor, and to the high deities to drive the chaos out of his country. It's slept on because nobody runs a marketing campaign for a 1967 Korean cartoon, not because it doesn't earn the watch. Sit with it and you get why finding that print mattered so much to people who never got to see it as kids.

In medieval Korea, a child is born on a day when violent storms and evil spirits sweep across the land. His family and the townspeople soon realize the infant has superhuman strength and a sharp, cunning mind. As he grows older, the boy swears an oath to his family, the Korean emperor and the gods above to free Korea from the turmoil spread by these wicked beings. The result is a fantasy adventure film about a gifted young hero taking up that mission.