The Painting

This is a very earnest but fun film which uses paintings to make a compelling, if also fairly vague, social statement. I got it because I was intrigued by the connections it would make between paintings and animation, and thought my kids would find this interesting. I later realized that the film's main premise, that paintings are "alive" like animation, and can even escape their canvas, was actually not new, but lifted directly from The King and the Mockingbird-a dependence which is not surprising given that The Painting was produced in France and Belgium. While that film used paintings to comment on the medium of animation, The Painting delves deeper into the painting itself, which it uses as an allegory for society. One premise is that paintings are a snapshot of an active world, which is moving behind the scenes; the other is that paintings are strictly hierarchical: some characters are fully colored ("all dones"); others are still in need of some coloring ("halfies"); and, at the bottom, are the mere sketches. The idea is that the painting is unfinished, but one could equally imagine that certain layers/characters have been abandoned and overpainted. The movie is, at its heart, a morality tale speaking out against the abuse of power by some of the "all dones," especially against the sketches, which could be applied to many situations; the idea that the halfies and sketches efforts to find the painter to complete themselves is misguided sends a much more ambiguous and mixed message. In any case, my kiddos enjoyed it and talked about it a lot afterwards.

a beautiful film. not complex script. not extraordinary story. but the memory of colors, the lovely simplicity, the freshness warm flavor of childhood, the emotions who are mixture of old images, adventure spirit, religious lesson and philosophical crumbs is like a kind of music. the result - an useful meeting. seductive, refreshing, delicate, a not ordinary animation who represents more than entertainment, a window to a splendid universe. the sense of well known world, the game of colors, the animation as a kind of delicate invitation to self discover are virtues of a film with not high ambitions but for this reason admirable way to remember the basic fundamental things.

good animation. or religious film. original characters. and seductive lesson about art. it has different sides. but it remains a beautiful show. not only for the wonderful art, for the wise mixture of love, tension, mystery and crumbs of history, for references to literature and history, for the final meeting or for the status of parable. but for its admirable manner to translate emotions and realities and desires. for the game of events and for the need of certitude of characters. for idealism. and for the grace of details. a film who remains different. for the science to explore old things in the inspired light. nothing more. only a story, a trip and a revelation. few characters. and the questions. short, one of stories who remains seductive for the art to reuse old problems in the right style.

Fantastic visuals, simply riveting with a perfectly executed structure. However, in my opinion it never reached it's full potential because it was held back. The film possessed a wonderful world without really exploring and explaining it in full detail, perhaps the director was not daring enough to go above and beyond in terms of the story line. Once the story was introduced, it struggled to maintain it's structural appeal. Though it contained a sensationally unique and stylistic appeal captivating the general audience. Despite the simple story it is a work bursting with imagination whether it be in art direction or its dazzling picture-hopping set piece.

Personal Rating: 6.6/10

I'd like to give credit where it's due, the art style in this movie is simply magnificent, with the wonderfully imaginative Jean-François Laguionie at the helm. This film explores many worlds each connected yet stunningly different. It was truly a feast for the eyes.

I want to break down my rating further:

• Style: 10/10, I simply fell in love with the whimsical yet purposeful nature of the artistic style.
• Score: 7.5/10, Repetitious in many instances but overall pleasant to the ears and motivated nicely throughout the movie.
• Story: 5/10, The story is where this movie falls flat for me.

Let's uncover the story a little more.

• The theme was executed well throughout the movie, but it had to beat you over the head with it, it wasn't even 10 minutes in before a character expressed word for word the theme, lazy writing.
• There's a lack of solid motivations behind actions, with the plot only moving forward because of conversations like this: "we should find the painter","Maybe we should, I've been wanting to for a while." That's it, then they just go off on an outer world expedition.
• It was as if we were forcibly being spoon-fed throughout this movie though we could've very easily held the spoon for ourselves.
• There was much dialogue that was repeating what we could see in the frame, show don't tell.

Now the following is a bit of further nitpicking, though it could be because I watched this movie in English and not the original French. Because of this, I'm not subtracting points because of the following:

• Sound, The dialogue most of the time was loud on the right side, echoey on the left. With sound effects and score being perfectly balanced, making the poorly mixed dialogue sound even worse.
• Speaking about dialogue, much of it was on the nose and could have easily been put in a more interesting pleasant way.

Overall this movie is a wonderful journey of artistic expression, visually stimulating, just paired with a cold porridge-like screenplay.