Turns out, the filmmaker behind Portrait of a Lady on Fire once up on a time wrote the script for a totally delightful, unsentimental but truly heartwarming and at its core tough family animated movie that starts with a little boy accidentally killing his drunk louse of a mom and being sent to an orphanage... Where the message is, basically, if you can connect with others around you - even the presumptive bully (I mean he has red hair, after all) - you'll be alright in life.
Adorably and impeccably crafted, warm, deeply felt, basically like finding a great kid's book that doesn't talk down for a second to kids (the mentions about sex seem just about right and work for amusing wonders for a French import, but notice how it treats abuse of different kids, it says enough without needing to say it all for what some of the kids have gone through), and the more I think about it the more good it makes me feel.
I only wish I'd seen this sooner; I'd put it right there in what Truffaut and Malle did with child characters in their best films, and it may reach a wider audience if parents are smart enough to turn their kids on to it (or adults watch it themselves regardless).
Adorably and impeccably crafted, warm, deeply felt, basically like finding a great kid's book that doesn't talk down for a second to kids (the mentions about sex seem just about right and work for amusing wonders for a French import, but notice how it treats abuse of different kids, it says enough without needing to say it all for what some of the kids have gone through), and the more I think about it the more good it makes me feel.
I only wish I'd seen this sooner; I'd put it right there in what Truffaut and Malle did with child characters in their best films, and it may reach a wider audience if parents are smart enough to turn their kids on to it (or adults watch it themselves regardless).