The Little Prince

Year: 2015

Genre: Animated Comedy

Directed: Mark Osborne

Stars: Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Marion Cotillard, James Franco, Benicio Del Toro, Ricky Gervais, Bud Cort, Paul Giamatti, Riley Osborne, Albert Brooks, Mackenzie Foy

Production: Onyx Films

The Little Prince is a modestly budgeted animated feature based on the Antoine de Saint-Exupery book of the same name. In it, a Little Girl (Foy) is told the story of a lonely Prince who once lived on a faraway asteroid covered in baobab sprouts. He leaves the comfort of his asteroid after a falling out between his lone, vain friend, a Rose (Cotillard). When he arrives on Earth, the Prince plops himself in the Sahara desert where he tames a fox and meets our narrator, a kind-hearted Aviator (Bridges). As the Aviator continues his story, the enraptured Little Girl ignores her chores and summer homework, which is assigned by her Mother (McAdams). She continues to visit the Aviator, a neighbor and local pariah who swears not only is the story true, but when his plane is fixed, he'll resume his search for the Prince.

Am I the only one who read this in middle school?

The original book is a poetic children's story whose somber tones, feelings of isolation and layers of humanism has crossed the generations to be a must read. It's a short book yet it's ambiguity lends itself to being appreciated and mulled over like first course charcuterie before your middle school English teacher brings out Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried". It's accredited for having some astute observations on human behavior. It highlights various various human faults: vanity, greed, selfishness etc. through the point-of-view of an innocent child while keeping the language whimsical and the watercolor illustrations near-universal in their simplistic grace.

The Little Prince movie takes a bold risk adding another layer; a story within a story, using the Little Girl's narrative arc as a framing device. Through the eyes of the Little Girl we enter a world resembling the soulless mis en scene of Mon Oncle's (1958) modern living scenes with the frantic banality of Brazil (1985). It's a sight to behold and one can't help but be taken in by the sumptuous tactile animation even if it's meant to be occasionally grotesque. The get-up-and-go attitude of the Mother only adds to the feeling of imposing isolation, one that's motivated largely by the trappings of modern life; a life that the Little Girl and the Prince seems poised to join.

Yet the matryoshka doll of a plot is also the film's Achilles heal. By framing the story just so, we get a feeling of place and time, which is to say modern. Thus we get a feeling for the ominous force pulling all the strings, making our protagonists oh so unhappy (it's the man, man!). Taking the ambiguity out of the original story and making such a strong if popular statement on contemporary wage economy problems robs an audience of their interaction with the story. It also guarantees that the film will have a shorter shelf-life while alienating those who never had to deal with eccentric neighbors, only-child isolationism and helicopter parenting.

Boy and the World (2013): same themes done much better

Of course as a children's movie, subtlety is not the highest of priorities and despite a third act that falls apart like the stitching of a buttoned-eyed fox, there's so much to redeem this film. It's got a gentle sense of humor, fun characters and some very solid voice-acting by Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Ricky Gervais and Paul Rudd who plays the older more world-weary Prince. Director Mark Osborne of Kung Fu Panda (2008) fame makes it clear The Little Prince is not a product, it's a delicately and lovingly assembled piece of art meant to be enjoyed by all ages. Catch it on Netflix Streaming while you can.

Final Grade: C+