Der Tag der Krähen

I have seen a few French animations like 'Eleanor's Secret', 'Zarafa' and others. They were so cute, unlike Hollywood's, these were targeted for the children, but adults can watch them as well. No logic can be expected since it is an animation, it ain't masterpiece either, but a pure fantasy tale and the honest entertainment piece. The plot was loosely based on the French children's book of the same name and a feature film debut for the director. Obviously a low budget film, but nothing short to be a high quality flick.

This was not a movie with the beautiful character models like from the Disney fairy tales, but they were adorable and enjoyable by the portrayal. That's what I always like in the European animations. Technically sounds good, but the stories are what so special in the French animations. This was about a nameless boy, who lives in the heart of the forest with his father. All his life lived within the circle of a boundary, but what happens once he crosses it is what the story that explores.

The boy was the centre of the story, his adventures, discoveries and understanding of the human civilization is the movie. The boy's character was not unusual, he has been just like the other version of Tarzan or Mowgli of the French version, who is a feral and curious about the world. Everything going to change when he meets the other creatures of his own and a girl of his age. The circle of life repeats, to break the curse and brings the curtain to the sweet narration.

"Our forest stands in the middle of the sky. And the stars turn around like the beast attached to his stake."

The end describes the meaning of the title. It was a 90 minute movie, but feels too short. If we talk about the film characters, Jean Reno rendered his voice to one of the main characters. As the characters rough in the looks, the story as well not that pleasant. Of course it is a children's movie, but character behaviours were rough and tough like the father bashing his son, huntings and deaths. Violent, but smooth and clever which are acceptable.

The 2D animation has died only a decade ago in the Hollywood, but great to see them still alive in the other part of the world, but facing the recognition problem which might lead to extinction. I have grown watching the cartoons, but now feels like time to say goodbye not too long from here. Now I am monitoring attentively the new products so that I can keep updating in the last hours of this awesome technology. I recommend this film for all ages. As far as the movie, it delivers what was intended to tell. Hope you like the film, as I tried to convince in this review.

8/10

I've seen the movie today at a preview in Vire (France). The first thing I saw about it was a few sketches and paintings made by Serge Elissalde that reminded me of Grimm fairy tales and the old illustrations by Gustave Doré or Arthur Rackham. The forest depicted as a place where anything can happen. What happens here is the story of a little boy raised as an animal by his violent, ogre-like father in the deep forest and banned from going outside. But when he finally has to go pass these limits and reach the nearest city, he will discover there are other people like them and find out what "love" really means. The setting is really well made, beautifully painted with a lot details as in a movie from Ghibli. The main character looks like a hero from a shonen manga with all the silliest facial expressions. The voices from the French version are really good, Jean Reno for the father, Lorànt Deutsch for the boy, Isabelle Carré for the girl Manon, and Claude Chabrol for her father (the movie is in memory of the latter, who died shortly after and did not see the movie finished). I couldn't help thinking of the movies by Hayao Miyazaki, not only because of Jean Reno (voice of Porco Rosso) but also because the silent spirits of the forest who are depicted as animal-headed humans : dears, frogs, pigs, who immediately conjured up images of Mononoke or Spirited Away. The music is also very present and add to the dream-like feeling of some of the scenes. Finally, the themes are richer than you can think and not a lot of animation movies dealt with father-son relationship with so much violence and depth, the movie is NOT a movie for young kids but older kids and adults will like it.

What a beautiful animation, cute Tarzan version, beautiful graphics, with all the ingenuity and charisma of the kid like not falling in love, in a super chemistry with Manu, lots of mischief and mischief ... Adorable...