Tales of the Night

To any one reading "I wonder what kids will think of this. Because they might be the main target audience for this." and wondering the same. I can say that in the showing I saw there were a lot of kids and many French kids. No one was talking, everyone in the room was taken in and concentrating - no one left for the toilet - the only time there was any movement or sound was when the kids (and adults) were laughing with joy - especially at the "tom-tom magie". Each story contained morels and some potentiality tough subject matter for children, but in a well balanced way. I saw a subtitled version - that was not 3D. A beautiful story for beautiful people of any age.

I think this is a great animated film in terms of style. My six-year old son loved the film and watched it three times within one week, but I was having trouble getting through it just the one time. I think my Cason loved the style of animation since it reminded him so much h of puppetry arts techniques (which he loves) and the fact that each segment is like a different mini story. It's a film I'm willing to give another chance in another couple of years.

Ocelot's toons have always had the unfamiliar (African) imagery working for them. Their naive plot lines have been both an attraction and a limitation.

This episode film, framed with sessions in the re-voicing studio - where an owl is perched on the desk - are not a step towards more traditional work.

The recognisable Ocelot style is here mixed with a bit of Lotte Reiniger and boosted by a fascinating use of Three D, which spaces the arms and eyes of the outline crowd at different distances from the viewer, among other effects. Was it ever shown anywhere else but the Paris Champs Elysses that way? Whether the makers can take this style further and how it will go down with the tot audiences, I've seen cheer the Kirikou films, has yet to be seen.

I picked this out for myself to watch, thinking it would be too "artsy" for my four year old, but she was immediately captivated and plunked down on my lap to watch the whole thing. I was quite surprised at this since she is usually a fan of the Disney princess-genre, ha ha. It is a visually striking art film, and some of the stories have a couple of scary moments or themes for a little one, but we appreciated the simple stories that were told in a unique style of animation. The shadow-box-puppet style with only eyes highlighted on the characters actually fit the fairy-tale type tales very suitably, with a moral to the story, or a twist at the end, so don't expect Shakespeare level - it really is intended for children. We will likely watch this again and again.

Tales of the Night is a 2011 French computer silhouette animation feature film directed by Michel Ocelot. I didn't see it in its 3D theatrical release... so no comment on that. A girl, a boy and an old cinema technician create stories using a machine. They then perform each story. The six stories are all clunky dialog clunky world culture tales.

I likes some of the stories more than others. But for better or worst, they have the feeling of unsophisticated old fairy tales. The gimmick of the old cinema machine to lead into each story just isn't worth the time. And I have to say it diminishes the stories if they just make it up. It'd be better if they made it as some kind of cultural discovery like the Grimm brothers. The style of animation also don't give the facial expressions needed for emotional depths. But it gets some cool points and fits the simplistic stories.