France has had an interesting recent history with animation. The country has many old and historically significant animations, the first "true" animation that we know of is "Phantasmagorie" from 1908 and it was created by Emile Cohl, a French man. However, with some exceptions I don't think many people could name any really well-known French animation off the top of their heads. I mean, you could probably name 'Ernest & Celestine", but I think for most people, that's about it, and even then I don't think any casual animation viewers will know what that movie is. I mention all of this because I really needed a way to introduce this movie, and I guess just bringing up things that it is tangentially connected was the best option. This is Le Petit Prince, or The Little Prince.
Quick thing here; I watched this movie in the original French language with English subtitles. Even being forced to learn French in school could never make me understand it. So, I'm gonna make no comments on, or mentions of the dubbing quality.
The Little Prince is based on a 1943 book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, I have never read the book (A big surprise there), so I'm not going to judge this as an adaptation, though I would have to assume it is a loose one. The plot of the movie is simple, a young girl is working hard to try and get into a fancy school. She is interrupted when an old man known as "The Aviator" gives her a page of a story about The Little Prince. From then on, the girl and Aviator bond over the story, but the young girl keeps the friendship a secret from her mother as to not get her upset and to follow the "life plan" she set for her. Then it becomes strange, the girl's mother finds out, the old aviator gets hospitalized, and the girl goes to find the little prince and... plotwise this movie gets confused. I'm not entirely sure what the final act was entirely about, and it jumped from a slice-of-life framing device around a fantasy story, to a pure low fantasy-adventure movie. That being said, the plot itself moves pretty smoothly. We see why the mother gets a house next to the aviator, we see the friendship between the aviator and young girl grow, and we see how each event progresses into the next. While the plot does get a little confused, it runs smoothly and even when it got to the abstract dream (I guess), I never had any questions about how the movie got to that point.
Characters are an interesting part of this movie. The characters don't have much personality, the characters don't even have names. They're referred to as "The Aviator", "The Mother", "The Businessman" and so on. This is not the first movie I reviewed like this, in fact this movie reminds me a lot of the previously reviewed Night is Short, Walk on Girl. However, to that movie's credit, the main characters had a bit more of an identifiable personality. That is not to say the characters are not identifiable in this movie, The Aviator is playful and cheery, but does get serious when he has to. You can see it the scene we first see him. He's laughing and cheerfully waving to his neighbors, but he also answers the officer's question in truth and even raises his hands in preparation for arrest. The Mother is a little controlling, but in the end she does show that she cares for her daughter. As for out young heroine, she's fine. She's a better child character then the girl from Wonder Park, but I don't think she's as relate-able as Kubo. I don't think the characters are this movie's strongest aspect, which is not to say they are bland and uninteresting. At no point did I ever get bored of seeing them, but they aren't as good as a movie like Ice Age, or the previously mentioned Night is Short.
I would also like to go on record saying that this movie got a couple of chuckles out of me. This movie is not really a comedy, and it is most definitely not laugh-out-loud funny. However, it got a couple chuckles from me, and the themes of the movie also got an emotional response from me. There are too many movies about holding on to your childhood and staying a child at heart. This movie instead opts for a "It's fine to grow up, but just don't forget" kind of theme, which is a great theme and message. I think too many people have forgotten that they too were children, but I digress. While I do find this movie a nice emotional adventure, I do not think it will really sell on the humour aspect.
Now, animation on the other hand is amazing. They mixed Computer-Generated animation with Stop Motion, and it looks beautiful. The scene where the Aviator and Girl get covered by the deployed parachute was when I really started to like this movie. The starry nights, the rooms lit by glow in the dark lighting, even the vast and sprawling deserts looked amazing. Even when the movie is supposed to look mundane and bland, the movie never does get boring to look at. The colours and lighting always make this movie a visual delight, and some of the character design in the final act of the movie stands out among the rest of the movie. If you love animation, I can recommend this movie based on this aspect, as long as you don't mind everything else. If you're looking for an amazing story and truly great characters though, you won't really find it here.
The Little Prince reminded me a lot of Night is Short, Walk on Girl and in more than just the characters. Both movies had bizarre final acts that felt almost out of nowhere, and both movies did feel a bit lengthy. Pin me down, I would say that Night is Short is the better of the two movies, it had stronger lead characters and only felt lengthy towards the end. That is not to say The Little Prince is bad, it does have some good characters, a smooth plot progression and some truly amazing animation. However, I can see why some people wouldn't like it. In fact, another blogger that talks about animated movies called Animated Antic, also reviewed this movie back in 2017, and he was a lot harsher on it than I was, but I can see where he comes from. If you want to check out his review, the link is here! As for me though, I did enjoy my time with this movie. It was beautiful and charming to watch, and if you can get past any of the faults myself or Antic mentioned, it might be worth checking out. I might give it a Slight Recommendation, but by a hair or so. If I were rating these based on how I felt, it would be a solid Recommendation, but I have to understand that this movie is not for everyone, and for that, it gets a Slight Recommendation.
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