Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

This whimsical animated french film about love is a delightful treat.

Jack is a boy who with a heart condition and mustn't feel any emotion in excess, you see he has a cuckoo clock for a heart. Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart is a fanciful tale from creator Mathias Malzieu.

Malzieu's Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart is a hopeless love story of a morose young fellow cursed with a faulty cuckoo heart. Not only that, this melancholic boy turned tormented teen falls in love for a girl with rose tendrils as hair who is visually impaired from crying tears of ice. The romance is doomed as his adopted mother Madeline informs him a single kiss could stop his ticking heart.

The poetic narrative twists and turns and Jack's troubles are Shakespearean, full of misguided choices and fallacious offenses. Some would say the adventitious plot is careless and designless but I think that is where the artistry lies.

The animation is dark and Gothic, decidedly Burtonesque with a Henry Selick or Laika quality yet simultaneously original. While CGI, the animation has a unique marionette picturebook characteristic. The characters are fresh and inexplicably bewitchingly fantastic – from a a bespectacled feline with metallic whiskers, a man with a xylophonic spine, to an angelic woman (women?) with wings and two heads. We don't actually know why this 19th century setting is so magical but it is imaginative enough to not care, especially when Jack lands at the carnival.

Unable to find the original French language version with English subtitles I was consigned to viewing the English dubbed version. While adequate I do wish I could have listened to the songs as they were written and the initially cast French actors. The music is lovely and moving and the English lyrics keep up.

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This animation is definitely unique and different from any other animation I've seen! It is an artistic masterpiece, has a very clever story, unique music that I totally did not expect, and of course just absolutely wonderful animation! I do highly recommend this movie for the age group of 13 on up. I don't believe younger children will understand the story line.

I'm an artist and LOVE to see different types of animation as it helps me to sculpt and create differences.

Jack and The Cuckoo Clock Heart isn't as "dark" as some of Tim Burton's works, but still has a little gloomy feel to it. At first I wasn't sure I liked it, but seeing it through ... I LOVE IT!

I love this movie. The music. The way the story is told. The characters.

A few nights ago my 5-year-old daughter and I sat down for movie night. We chose this. Of course she asked so many questions the whole way through, but she sat through the whole movie and talked about it for days. We sat down again and watched it the whole way through. She is a lover of music and of course wanted to hear the songs, sadly we could only find on YouTube in English. Anyway, the movie was simply beautiful. Tim Burton is one of my absolute favorite directors and this movie had a similar feel to it. I would definitely recommend this movie, and I have.

I generally like animation movies, ever since Shrek I guess. This one is quite amazing. It's not your typical Disney, or Pixar production. It's French, Belgian production, and you can see cultural differences influencing it, especially music and songs. I just loved the first duet of the main characters. That tune is so catchy, melody will surely get stuck in your mind.

How great is it, that we live in the world with so many different cultures. Unfortunately world is becoming more and more bland, end everything you see seems to be the same.

...but occasionally, you find a gem like that.

It's different so it may not be to everyones liking. OK so that's the good, the bad is, story kind of drags on at few moments. Anyways it's worth checking out, even if just because of the style.

It's rather aimed at adults as a sort of animated art form musical, but kids should enjoy it too.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart was a French animated film that took its jolly sweet time to come to the UK, even though the English voice cast was British and the French version is unavailable in the UK. It was distracting to see the lip-syncing not matching the dialoguing.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart was an interesting film that looked like it came from the mind of Tim Burton. It looked fantastic due to its strange look like the accordion train and strange circus. The film was based on a concept album and a novel by Dionysos. And this was a double edge sword because the film did have some strong music but the plot seemed like an excuse to tie together some music videos. An example of this was the Jack the Ripper song which seemed pointless.

Despite the story issues there were still some moments of tragic beauty like the puppet show and the ending. I did find the lyric 'rip your clothes off with my teeth' (sung by a 10-year-old character) and the advice that seduction works best when it looks like you're not trying. Yep, it's a French film.

Sadly Samantha Barks only has two songs in the film. Most of her character's songs kept the French singer, Olivia Ruiz. This is despite Barks being known for singing .