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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As many other reviewers are noting...This feature is NOT for Kids. Not because of inappropriate trashy stuff: There's no cursing, no nudity, no anime-kiddie-porn, and none of the usual over the top violence we've become used to in general Kid animated features (Explosions, etc) Rather, it's the unpleasant emotional issues of acceptance & affection and Life & Death that are front and center. That said, the story of a baby born with a frozen heart that's replaced with a cuckoo clock is richly detailed, with some very well written songs and a story line that moves with a brisk pace. The animation of the fantasy Clockwork-Victorian world is visually exquisite.

But be warned: This is no Disney scripted place where everyone has a happy ending. There are dark moments that will lead to a poetic and poignant place.

Even if you don't have kids (Teen or otherwise) to consider...this movie is a beautifully crafted piece of light drama for Adults to enjoy on a nice rainy or snowy Sunday Afternoon.

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 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.

I saw this in English. I suspect that a fair amount of nuance of the script, lyrics is lost in translation. Much of the film is incoherent if you think about, even more so than other fantasias. I am still not entirely sure what happened in the end. This largely works in the film's favor because the oddness of the text fits the visually whimsy. This feels very much like an early Burton film and it has same sense otherworldly quality.

The animation is gloriously expressive. They really push the style into some surreal and dream like images. It is a lot more striking then the generic photoreal stuff that you get in a ton of American animation. I might not understood what was happening at all times but I did understand the emotion-a rich melancholy-because the animation and the music let me know.

This was a very good film.