Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest (2006)

the audience applauded

Purely Joyful Movie!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Blistering performances.

I have seen many great animated tales - from Wall-E, Cars, Ratatouille, Curse of the Were Rabbit, Spirited Away, Belleville Rendezvous, Princess Mononoke, to Ghost in the Shell, Aladdin, Waking Life, The Lord of the Rings and Peter and the Wolf.This is film has some great qualities of all the above. Firstly the story telling is charming, and time is spent on the characters from the beginning. The animation is more Belleville Rendezvous than Wall-E but it is an exquisitely unique experience as a result.In this film the intensity always took me by surprise. The incredible contrast of blue eyes, a silhouette frame against the night sky. The intricate detailing of eastern architectures. The vivid saturation of colours. The use of light and dark and colour in particular is possibly the most beautiful of any animation I have ever seen. It had a wonderfully natural quality to the character animation - like the older Disney films, but with striking backgrounds and detailing.Also interesting is the constant interplay between western and eastern cultures. The dialogue is at times both beautiful, quirky and thoughtful.I'd recommend this if you have an interest in other cultures, beautiful drawing and quirky storytelling.

The story and setting for this French animated film, in which two childhood friends travel through a semi-mythical land on a quest to find the Djinn fairy, reminded me strongly of The Alchemist, a story written by Paolo Coelho. The tale is not quite as timeless as Coelho's novel but the film conjures a similar magic. This is in large part due to the jaw-dropping visual style, which is quite unlike anything else I have seen.The characters look superb, with luscious colours applied uniformly across clothing and intricate jewellery glinting marvellously. The range of settings is more dazzling still, ranging from green fields jam-packed with flowers and seedpods to bustling market towns to breathtakingly ornate palaces. There are innumerable wondrous images to recount and many clever visual touches such as the exaggerated proportions bestowed upon wildlife, including an enormous horse and a tiny cat.Unfortunately, I think that the translation of the film for English audiences has diluted some of the original message. This is most notable in the character of Crapoux, whose snobbery is used partly to propagate the film's message of cultural understanding. The scene where Crapoux derides foreign cookery next to that of his native country might be plausible when he is speaking in French. However, an English-speaking character deriding foreign foods against traditional English fare such as apple sauce seems rather surreal and amusing in way that the writers surely did not intend. (This is not to say that the English are strangers to cultural snobbery.) A further problem I had with the film was the ending, which was fairly predictable and therefore suffered from being so drawn-out. Nevertheless, I was greatly relieved to be spared the song-and-dance ending that typifies so many modern animations. The absence of any pop culture references was also refreshing (Pixar take note).

This movie has it all for all ages - eye-popping visuals, perfect subject independence, gorgeous music and it is chock-full of wonderful messages and story-telling for everyone.The richness in the images is equaled by the richness of the subject matter: a story rewarding curiosity, fidelity and bravery deals with the excitement of discovering little-known cultures, eras, religions, foods, habits of dress, languages, music and the other sex...The trailer and the brief description by the distributor hardly do this piece of magic justice. A must-see as soon as it becomes available near you.

I saw this today as part of the London Children's Film Festival 2006 at the Barbican Centre and found it completely and utterly satisfying. Every second of screen time is mind-blowingly beautiful to the point of being painful - from the wild flowers on the field where the title characters played as boys, to the starlit silhouette of Azur and the Princess on a treetop. But don't let the sumptuous visuals make you think this film is just eye candy. The story is engaging and yet profound, the characters vivid, and the message (yes, it has a message, but what's wrong with that?) is inspirational; a quality that the English-language animated films of the last decade has completely eschewed. Ocelot's early 'Princes et Princesses' was enchanting and promising, and both his Kirikou films were endearing. But with 'Azur' he has totally ascended to a different level. It is admirable how he consistently refuses to dumb down his characters, and the delightful ending is wonderfully faux conventional in Ocelot's trade mark style. Difficult to see how popular this would be with today's kids, but a generation growing up inspired by 'Azur' would no doubt be more pacifist and tolerant.