The Little Prince

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This film is rather ambitious for a "kids" movie and I hope with films like this and Inside Out this will become the new normal for the animated genre. However this film does not quite meet its ambitions. It suffers from a very confusing first act which doesn't correct itself as time goes on. My biggest problem where the characters in the film. The characters seemed to take actions based on what was convenient to the plot rather than what makes sense to the character. I've also never read the book but it feels like there were two stories kind of crammed together. It didn't work nearly as well as it could have.

Grazie per avermi narrato la storia 2 volte all'interno del film. Avevano lì, a portata di mano, un ottimo prodotto che non hanno sfruttato, ma ci hanno costruito attorno la storia più blanda possibile, con i **** più blandi possibili. Un gran peccato, perché la storia narrata ha pure una bella morale. Consigliato? Nì.

As a book this is purportedly a children’s classic and, although I haven’t read it, one thing has become crystal clear; it doesn’t adapt well to the medium of film. The 1975 directed live action adaptation was nothing short of a disaster and now this over rated animated version also fails to sell the fables charms. In fact, it is the framing device about the little girl being introduced to the tale of ‘The little Prince’ that holds what interest there is to be had. The actual story of the title character, whilst aimed at children, is actually too adult orientated to be totally understood by its intended audience. On the plus side the animation is very good and Han Zimmer’s music compliments the tone of the film perfectly. There are also a clutch of good songs on the soundtrack, some old and some new, including a couple of ballads which are really quite beautiful.

Overrated, boring, and full of dull characters mixed with admittedly beautiful animation, there's nothing different here from the way The Lorax got a movie.