Ratones y zorros. Una amistad de otro mundo

But then drifted off into cliche. Bullying friends, abusive dad, overblown character traits.

The animation, the set up, the look was all good, but it delivered a simplified one dimensonal story we've seen many times before.

After hearing the premise of this movie, I was determined to take a look. Another tale like "One Stormy Night" perhaps? Exploring a friendship between predator and prey? Sign me up! However, this movie proved rather difficult to find and only recently has been made available on YouTube. Although not as good as OSN (a masterpiece) this was still a great movie for both children and adults. This adult plans to watch it again soon.

You'd think stop motion animation limits what you can do, and may even restrict the movie to little kids, but no. The animation looks experienced, and it doesn't matter if it's cell drawn or CGI or this, the story plays the same. Holding that against this movie is doing it a terrible disservice. So let's nip that now.

We have a story of predator and prey, fox and mouse, who both die and find themselves in heaven. They each blame each other as to why they're there, and even in heaven not all is forgiven. These two can't wait to be rid of each other. That's what makes this tale kind of cool. Like, how can they become friends? What are the rules in heaven? Questions are raised which keep you watching, wondering how things might affect what happens next.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but perhaps I expected to, and found both both main characters endearing. The little female mouse probably had bigger nuts than the male fox! And when the movie goes for your heart, it gets it. When it was all over, there was no more tale to tell, but I wanted more. It left me feeling happy and hopeful.

While I do admit the first 15-ish minutes were not that engaging to me, feeling like another standard kids movie, it really started to pick up a little after Whitebelly (the fox), and Wheezy (the mouse) meet.

First of all the movie has some of the best looking stop motion I've seen in quite a while, visually looking like The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and possibly a bit of Isle of Dogs. Even though most of it is physical props in stop motion, the rare thing that's not actually stop motion such as large pools of water, and the whale towards the end mesh well together despite being clearly CGI.

The character of Wheezy (mouse) was initially a little two-dimensional feeling with her personality, she and the other personalities got a bit better and more immersive feeling, while the character of Whitebelly and the supporting cast felt pretty strong (except for the Moles, they felt a bit like a walking gag).

The ending, and the whole message of the movie itself is pretty impactful.

I'd go out of your way to find this if possible, just try to stick with it past the first 15 or so minutes and you'll find something pretty underrated.

I watched this on the English dub, and not the original French one as I don't like subtitle blindness, nor can I speak French. *shrug*

Like I said in the title of this review, I find. "Even Mice Belong in Heaven" to be a rather pleasant motion picture not only for children but for adults as well. This animated feature from the Czech Republic can be considered "The Defiant Ones" meet "Defending Your Life" meets "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" meets "Freaky Friday." I feel that it is more than just a movie. It is also a spiritual experience. It demonstrates the cycle of life, death, and rebirth quite beautifully as a mouse and a fox both experience the afterlife firsthand together. I am glad to give this film a perfect ten, and I recommend that you go see it.

A pleasant little film I got to watch recently through a festival screening. Its by no means amazing but I did appreciate its charm and its ability to be a film for young people with the underlying philosophical aspects of life, death, self worth and morality. How two people pitted to be mortal enemies can find resolve through their differences, while also turning the cat and mouse game on its head by inverting the roles.