The Secret of Magic Island (1956)
The carnival is coming to town! Unfortunately, the Good Fairy's wand is stolen by the diabolical Black Troll. And he turns The Poet's girlfriend to stone! It's up to The Poet to brave the darkness at the edge of the forest and journey to the Troll's mountain lair to save the day! Also the Black Troll is a monkey and The Poet is a duck. FYI.
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Wonderful Movie
Powerful
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Jean Tourane is known for the Saturnin series which enchanted the young French television audience in the late 60s. "Une fée... pas comme les autres" uses the same animation technique consisting in filming backyard animals (dukes, dogs, cats, ...) in a decor adapted to their size. Accompanied by an off-track commentary, these animals, worthy heirs of the Fables of Jean de la Fontaine, behave as perfect humans, sharing their behaviors, their moral qualities and their defects. The process gives a more animated result than the use of puppets, but at the detriment of the scenario which must be simplified so that the actors seem to do what the narrator suggests they are doing. Obviously, this animation technique is completely outdated today and it will be difficult to convince your children, except perhaps the youngest, to devote one hour of their time to it. Especially since the narration is of a grammatical and semantic level probably too high for the children of today ... In spite of everything, Jean Tourane shows a remarkable imagination, introducing into his script unusual animals such as frogs and herons. A small animation jewel that will interest today budding filmmakers. Those who knew how to keep a child's soul and who will rediscover the processes of animation and narration that are now lost.