zodreb

I absolutely love animated everything, especially movies. I have seen a ton of foreign animated movies as well, and often go see them at film fests. I know a lot about animated feature films, so that being said, this one is now in my top ten, if not top five animated films.

The animation is great. By the quality of the way they moved, I'm taking an educated guess they used kind of a tv cartoon/cheaper cg process to make this movie as opposed to what you'd see being done by Disney or a feature anime. However, the artistry and skill is apparent here as they obviously bend the tool to their whims to make fantastic animated sequences.

The story is fantastic, it's long, paced well, and really explores some familiar themes as well as some stronger themes. The movie is heavy on personal fulfillment and growth, but put in a fun and entertaining way. The final theme of the movie resonated with me stronger than any animated movie I've seen prior. It's very powerful.

The ending does NOT end like a typical western animated feature and is extremely bold and original. Not predictable from a western viewpoint, if all you watch are movies from the west.

I've seen a lot of really high praise for this movie so I decided to watch it. The screening I saw had the director come and talk about it with the audience afterward and included a Q and A, which certainly is appreciated. He mentioned that his daughter was a huge influence on him and his son was used as the voice of the little prince.

The idea of this movie is about a little girl who reads the Little Prince stories, which are "true" in this universe. This is the framing device for telling the original stories in the book. The director stated that this movie was not an attempt to make the Little Prince book into a movie, which he says is "impossible", but rather an attempt to show how it felt to read the book for the first time. OK, cool. Sounds good so far.

I will sum up exactly what this movie is: Basically, someone wrote a lousy fan fiction sequel to the Little Prince and dropped a Mary Sue into it as the lead character. If you don't know what a Mary Sue is, Wikipedia defines it as "an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities. Often this character is recognized as an author insert and/or wish- fulfillment."

So basically: The Little Prince story continues years later after it ends with the book and this girl is inserted into the story and she saves everything because she's so amazing and smart. If that's what you want to watch, it is nicely animated and amusing enough. It definitely has its moments of wonder and keeps your interest. But in my opinion this Mary Sue character idea ruins the entire thing.

I don't want to spoil anything but when I saw the concept of this movie I did not think much of it. I figured I'd go watch it on the strength of the fact that it won some award in Ireland. I just saw the North American Premiere and I was totally shocked by it. The only review I had read of this movie was that it was "OK".

Folks, this movie is better than OK, it is fantastic. It is not at all what I thought it would be and the concept of "inverted" is key here. They keep on changing what's real and what's not, and your idea of what reality is switches back and forth several times. They have a few really big reveals in the film that kind of blow you away. I don't even want to say what other movies this is like because it would give it away. But similarities aside, it still manages to be original and refreshing. Just be prepared to have your mind blown several times in the course of the movie all the way to the ending.

There is another movie called Upside Down that came out around the same time as this, maybe a bit earlier. I have never seen it but the reviews on it are terrible. These guys may not be the "original" upside down movie but they certainly did a great job with the concept, probably better based on the reviews.

Do yourself a favor and watch it, and do not read any plot synopses on it beforehand. Don't spoil the surprises.