proud_luddite
In a French suburb, a girl of maybe nine has a hyper-ambitious mother who has over-scheduled the girl's life. Naturally, the girl connects with their eccentric, ostracized neighbour: a former pilot who tells her stories of the title character, taken from the novella by Antoine de St-Expury. This review is for the film's English-language version.The greatest delights in this film are the ways it mocks our modern world. It begins by focusing on a child whose childhood is being ripped away and compares her to an elderly man who refused to let his childhood spirit die. They are surrounded by drone people living in cloned modern homes. Brief scenes mocking office clones and uppity schools are a joy.With so much going for the film, there's almost a feeling of anti-climax by the end. There is certainly nothing wrong with it but the main story has less bite than the occasional satire that rightly criticizes the worst of modern times. But the overall message is worth it: despite the insane demands of our modern world, we can get through it if we stay connected to our childhood spirit and imagination.
Mopkin TheHopkin
The Little Prince is an adaption of the classic children's tale, with a modern twist. The film follows a young girl who lives with her single mother. The pair are highly regimented, and trying hard to get the young girl into a prestigious private school. To do so, a strict regiment of studying is required, which books her entire summer. She has no issue with this, until the kooky old man next door fires a propeller through her back wall, and changes the young girls life. He introduces her to his story of a young prince and his travels (loosely, the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry tale), and she begins to flounder on her studies, and opens her imagination up to the wondrous tales of adventure offered, and begins to wonder if they are really real.This is a well told story with an interesting twist to it. The Little Prince is a classic tale, and one which has sparked the imaginations of children the world over (and did so for me as well). Making a film out of such a tale can be daunting. How to adapt it to modern audiences? How to get studio backing for the project? Should it be a faithful adaption, or should there be changes? This version of the story is well told, and revolves quite a bit around the meta-story more so than the actual Little Prince tale. It takes place after the events of the story. The Aviatar is an old man, the Little Prince grown up, the stars have changed. This is more a tale of unlocking the power of imagination, and remembering the childhood we all once had, and the amazing and creative things we did back then.The film is animated in two styles. The first, is the main story, and features a more "realistic" style animation akin to a modern Disney film. The second is a paper-mache style animation done for the retelling of the Little Prince. Both suit the story well, although I personally preferred the more magical and innovative animation style done for the Little Prince sections of the film, over the more realistic style.Story-wise, I was left feeling lukewarm. The innovative story was interesting and fun, and sure to be appealing to kids and watchable for adults. I particularly enjoyed the interesting fantasy elements, which felt pure and innocent. The story of the young girl fit well enough into the framework of the Little Prince, as she journey's to find out what has happened since the story ended. Even so, some bits of the story felt highly manufactured. It is disappointing in some respects that the filmmakers did not give more story time and credit to the original work, and sacrificed much to a bog-standard version of childhood innocence. The Little Prince itself would have made a fantastic film (or even television series), and it feels wasteful to give it so little screen time in relation to the story of the girl and her mother, and how they don't understand each other, and how the mother forgot her childhood and so on. I unfortunately found myself constantly feeling disappointed at the films storytelling, and although it was not awful or even bad, it did not due the old story justice, and does not hold enough magic itself to create a new tale for the ages. It just felt mediocre.The target audience for the film also felt muddled. The film will surely be too childish for fans of the source work (those coming at it from a nostalgic lens). The story was also too grey and serious in some places for younger kids. The world the young girl inhibits is grey and corporate. Her life is regimented by schedules, the stars are gone, and she has no time for fun and games. Much of the movie's run time takes place in this space, and it may turn out to be to dull children.The voice acting in the film also felt a tad wooden. Jeff Bridges as the Aviator was a good choice on paper. He has a distinctive voice, and has played wonderful roles in many of his recent films. Even so, he felt too wooden. The voice acting felt like an Anime English dub, with little emotion or backing from him. Mackenzie Foy, as the young girl, was much more interesting in most place, but still suffered some of the same restrictions Bridges did, with wooden tones and such.As can be seen, this was a mixed bag for me to watch. It will be a disappointment for those who really enjoy the source work, and children may find it to grey and dull. The voice acting was wooden as well, and fell flat throughout the film. Even so, the interesting dual animation styles, the nods to the source work, and the cool fantasy elements to the film make it a more enjoyable watch than not. It is worth a shot for those with kids, and adults may get some good laughs and heartfelt moments out of it. All in all, a fairly enjoyable film with some unfortunate flaws, but still an interesting modern take on a classic children's tale. 6/10
claudia_dinu9588
First when I heard about the movie I thought it's another story for kids and it's not worth my time. But I completely changed the way I see it after I watched the movie. The Little Prince is a touching story about a boy and a rose who fall in love, but they are just too young to realize it and the boy runs away, leaving the rose alone. The movie contains many symbolic elements and, as I thought deeper, I was surprised to realize it's not just a kids's tale, but a story about life's true meaning, love, happiness and hope. It's about pursuing your dreams, making sacrifices for the ones you love and never forgetting them after they're gone. Because the heart can see what the eye can not.The movie is really impressive and I recommend it especially to those who did not read the book.
