Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran's book The Prophet was an engaging mix of poetry, spirituality and philosophy musing upon subjects including love, food, and death. It's quite lovely.

While the book has no story or characters, someone decided to try and turn it into a movie. The basic premise is a young, mute girl and her mother meet an imprisoned philosopher the state is afraid of and travel a little with him. Along the way, he muses on subjects like love and food and death.

The framing story, done by the folks behind is very engaging, with likable characters and a simple but appealing story. The problem is the musings, each a Gibran poems animated by a different animator and either read by Liam Neeson (perfect voice for it) or turned into a pop song.

I hated most of these. The animation is rarely interesting enough to stand on its own, and because there are tons of pauses to let the animation breath, Gibran's words are unfocussed and lack their melodic rhythms. Also the songs are pretty dreadful.

The end result is an hour of entertaining drama broken up by tedious little animation of poems that stand better on their own.

Some people seem to have really enjoyed this, but I can't recommend it. Or at least, not unless you fast forward through all the poetry.

It's difficult to simply judge the film without passing some judgment on the content of Gibran's poetry, which, in the context of the film, sounds even more like self-help advice. So those who like spiritualism, practical philosophy, and one man's interesting (then and still now) take on the world will probably find the content pretty awesome. For the rest of us, as I said, at times, it sounds a bit like self-help stuff, or new age stuff that is not new at all. Interestingly, a lot of the stuff about labor and work sounded very much like the stuff the Soviets would love (don't know if he was popular in the USSR).

The film attempts to tell the story of Mustafa, who is been on house arrest for seven years and is finally being released (deported back to his own country). The details of how he came to be in this other country are fuzzy, but it is clear that he is a poet, painter, and philosopher, and his ideologies have landed him in this bind. Mustafa befriends Almitra, who has stopped speaking since her father died a year ago. Almitra's mom does the housework for Mustafa under the (clumsy) watch of Halim (or Halil?) Everyone loves Mustafa. Townsfolk loves him. The cleaning lady and the kid love him. Even the guard loves him. There is a very clear distinction between good and evil here, which will appeal to younger children, and maybe not so much to the older crowd. So Mustafa is taken through the town (mistake!) to the boat that is supposed to take him back, but needless to say, things don't turn out that way at all. There is some strong imagery here (complete with a firing squad, but we only hear them fire).

I think most of the content is out of reach of most younger children. The stuff about love and life, about how parents do not own their children got through to the kids who were watching around me in the theater. I was surprised that even the youngest did not fall asleep, as some parts were just Mustafa speaking about stuff. I believe this s due to the amazing animation work by many great artists.

If Gibran's work does not interest you at all, I still would say this is a must see, if you like animation art. There's great stuff here. I dare say something for every taste and preference in terms of animation art.

All in all, it was a great film to see on the big screen. Animation was top notch and engaging (as the kids around me proved it). The story involving Almitra also appealed to the children, i think, though not to me as much. Mustafa's story is a classic case of denial of and persecution of freedom of speech; it is good to see something like this being made.

I've never written a review on IMDb, but saw this film's world premiere at TIFF and have been annoyed that nobody else has written about it, so I'm starting the conversation.

The two questions you need to ask yourself if you're wondering whether you'll like Kahlil Gibran's the Prophet are: Have you enjoyed Disney movies (traditionally animated, not the studio's modern Pixar-lite offerings), and do you like Gibran's poetry?

(If the answer to one or both is yes and you actually have an opportunity to see the Prophet, please stop reading and watch it so you can add to the discussion.)

If even Beauty and the Beast, every segment in Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, or the Lion King (whose co-director Roger Allers wrote and directed this) left you cold, the Prophet isn't likely to convert you. None of the key staff except Allers, storyboard artist Will Finn and segment directors Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi have connections to the Mouse House, but the Prophet's main story looks and, for the most part, feels like a Disney movie: a simple, effective parable about the power of ideas focusing on a girl (Quvenzhané Wallis)'s relationship with a poet (Liam Neeson) whose words nearly led to a Middle Eastern dictator (Frank Langhella) being overthrown years before the movie starts. (The setting resembles 1920s Algeria, but is wisely fictional, its name drawn from Gibran's book.)

After an introduction that echoes Aladdin and a lecture from her mother (producer Salma Hayek) that resembles every Disney film with a living parent, Wallis's Almitra winds up at poet Mustafa's shack, where he's been living under house arrest for seven years. But today the dictator's sergeant (Alfred Molina) arrives to inform Mustafa he's free to go - provided he leaves his adopted home forever and renounces those dangerous words.

During the long trek from Mustafa's home at one end of the capital to the dock where his ship awaits on the other, admiring townsfolk stop and ask for his advice about a variety of subjects, which Mustafa dispenses in the form of Gibran's words.

Which brings me to that second question. When Mustafa begins sharing his wisdom by discussing freedom, Liam Neeson - as he will throughout the movie - reads the original poem verbatim:

"At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,/Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them./Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff./And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment."

(You can read the rest here: http://www.katsandogz.com/onfreedom.html)

For my money, if you want to illustrate the power of poetry you can't do much better than Gibran, a Lebanese poet whose seminal work has touched millions around the world (including me) with its articulate, spiritual, multi-faith wisdom on 26 subjects ranging from freedom and work to marriage and children (the poems for which are all included here). I believe Gibran rivals Dr. Seuss and Shakespeare, but have also read that he's less well-known in North America than elsewhere, and that academics have a low opinion of his work. (Perhaps more importantly, none of my friends seem to have heard of him.)

So if you find Gibran's thoughts trite, you might find the movie off-putting as well.

That said, if you can approach it with an open mind anyway, you might still be carried away by the film's most artistic flourish: each of the eight poems used is illustrated by a segment designed and directed by a different international animator, including Bill Plympton, Sita Sings the Blues' Nina Paley, Secret of Kells director Tomm Moore, the aforementioned Brizzi brothers (who were assistant directors on Disney's the Hunchback of Notre Dame), and Mohammed Saeed Harib, creator of a Middle Eastern TV series. Two are even set to music composed by Damien Rice and Once's Glen Hansard.

Unfortunately, as of this writing the film lacks North American distribution - which, I am equally sorry to say, isn't surprising because it's a difficult sell. While the Prophet looks and - again, for the most part - feels like a Disney movie, it differs in one key respect: it knows that in real life you can't simply throw a dictator off a building and suddenly bring peace to a country. Animation is still synonymous with kid's entertainment in too many moviegoers' minds, and while suitable for children, the Prophet isn't aimed at them: little ones are advised to watch it with a parent who can answer the questions they'll inevitably have once the end credits start rolling.

The film isn't perfect - I personally didn't like the music used for the "Children" poem (Paley's segment), and have read grumbling online about Plympton's illustration of "Work" (which I thought was great). Some of the main story's action is poorly timed, and its characters aren't always as expressive as they could be (a consequence of the cel-shaded 3D animation used to bring them to life). But the voice cast (including John Krasinski as a friendly guard) is terrific - Neeson especially is the perfect narrator - and if not everyone will love every segment, each ones' artistry is undeniable. Besides, if you don't like a given sequence, another comes along within a few minutes.

Bottom line: I'm thrilled this movie exists and amazed at what Hayek, who spearheaded the project, was able to pull off with a $12- million budget. It deserves a wider audience.

In terms of film, there is a difference between an anthology and a collective set of work. Trick r Treat and The Twilight Zone: The Movie are anthology movies as each have a story is somewhat connected to the next and have reoccurring characters that might meet up. Fantasia is the prime example of a series of collected works. The same team may have been behind all the shorts, but they weren't meant to be published as a flowing set. Nothing about Fantasia's stories would confuse people into thinking that "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "The Nutcracker Suite" would be connected. Each story of Fantasia is it's own thing and is simply within the film because the filmmaker has chosen to put it in there.

One reason we don't see a lot of collective works set to one film is that a lot of people come to a movie to escape into one long story. That's not to say that there are people that like a set of short stories, but it's been proved by the studio system that a mainstream audience wants to see safer content. While you might find short film series' in a film festival, The Prophet is a collected work of artistic expression.

In a village within an unnamed middle eastern country, young speechless Almitra (played by Quvenzhané Wallis) is considered a trouble maker by her village as she is a compulsive thief and can make bird noises that allow her to communicate with seagulls. Her mother Kamila (played by Salma Hayek) tries to keep her under control now that she is a single mother (the fathers death is said to be the cause of Almitra loosing her speech) and working at a political prison. Finding school uninteresting, Almitra follows her mother to work and finds someone special behind a gate.

She finds an older but kind man Mustafa (played by Liam Neeson) who is an artist and a writer who has spent seven years under political arrest for writing controversial content that detest's the government. Mustafa and Almitra bond as the latter expresses his thoughts on life, love and freedom, as shown by segmented shorts that are usually just artsy expression of his essays. Two guardsmen (played by Alfred Molina and john Krasinski) are responsible for taking him to a ship that can return the artist to his home country, but the people may not be ready for him to leave.

Part of me really wanted to love The Prophet as it's rare to see a hand drawn animated movie and it really has passion for the essays as written by Lebenon artist Kahlil Gibran. The shorts are well done and look beautiful. It almost felt like that I was watching Fantasia again. But there's a problem; the movie tries to put them into a narrative.

I have nothing against this idea, but the movie's perspective is through the child and not the artist. This means that the story is simple and has been created as an attempt to be family entertainment. The content is tame, but I would think that most kids would find much of the artistic expression really boring.

What's weird is that I have nothing wrong with the actual story of a girl bonding with the artist and a village coming together as one. The voice acting is great and the animation looks nice. When the main narrative and the shorts are separated, their both magnificent. But when put together, it's tone is inconsistent, never finding a ground that can attract both children and adults.

Given I'm conflicted, I'll give this four collected works of Kahlil Gibran out of five purely on an artistic level. As inconsistent as the setting is, I still recommend the movie simple for it's animation. I'd say only see this if you really want to see another rare hand drawn movie.

I bought the ticket for this movie with very low expectations, but God was I wrong!

Soon after the opening scene, I realized that this was no ordinary movie. It's different from any other I've seen... and in so many ways: the mind-blowing messages; the brilliant blending of poetry, music, painting, and animation; and the way it propels one's imagination up to an entirely new level, all the time staying true to the soul of Khalil Gibran's artistic genius.

I highly recommend this exceptional movie to everyone who loves life and appreciates art in all its forms. Being a sensual mind opener, this masterpiece succeeds at making the viewer not only enjoy it, but enjoy existence as a whole too.

Hats off to Salma Hayek, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Yared, and of course Roger Allers.

If you are tired of all the pretentious movies out there, don't miss out on this simple one. After all, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, right?

9/10 (being the 'stingy with the grades' reviewer that I am)