Madeline: Lost in Paris

Based on characters and settings created by author/artist Ludwig Bemelmans in 1939 in his book "Madeline", this is a wonderful 75-minute musical feature for very young children. Our two-year-old girl loves it even though the plot is sophisticated enough to please a ten-year-old. The voice talents of Christopher Plummer (as the narrator) and Lauren Bacall are superb. The characters speak and sing with charming Parisian accents, often breaking into a little genuine French. Like the book, the narration is in verse. The drawings are certainly cleaner than Bemelmans' originals yet retain their stylized charm, including the famous scenes of actual places throughout Paris and the "twelve little girls in two straight lines" led by Miss Clavel.

The story is a new one created 60 years after the book's publication. Its central theme is "family". Unlike the book, here little Madeline seems to be an orphan and longs for a family of her own. Hoping to find long-lost relatives she undergoes a dangerous adventure in which she learns that some of the essential attributes of family may be found among friends with whom one breaks bread. The resourceful and brave Madeline is helped by old friends and helps new ones in turn.

Do not confuse this film with a series of 20-minute cartoons made about a decade earlier. Although also narrated by Christopher Plummer, these shorts are cheap Saturday-morning affairs without merit in plot, animation or music. By contrast "Madeline Lost in Paris" is a keeper.

O.K here's a quick summary of the plot: Madeline is an orphan. She is a good girl but one always seems to end up in some sort of trouble because of her tomboy-ish nature. She lives in a home in France with 11 other little girls who walk in straight lines and tend to say everything in unison. They are looked after by a kind-hearted nun(?) and have an abnormally smart dog. Other characters include the somewhat dim-witted governor of the house and the son of the Spanish Ambassador who lives next door with his father and seems to hold a torch for Madeline. This was originally a book that was a favourite for females in the 5-8 bracket, before becoming an animated series from which this film is derived from.

To start with, the animation is a huge improvement from the TV programme, with bright colours and some actual movement in the background. Madeline and her friends are pretty simplisticly drawn, but the art does it's purpose and does not claim to be Toy Story quality. The voiceovers are typically in English but done in French accents: how these people who were born and bred in France are fluent in English is not explained, neither is why they never use their native tongue (They write in it a couple of times) but it sounds amusing nontheless, with Lauren Bacall the undoubted highlight playing the very bald villianess.

The storyline gets pretty frenetic at times, but not so much that young minds will get lost in it. There are some pretty scary moments involving a child abduction and threats made with a pair of scissors, but nothing that should unduly concern any parent of a child of school going age. However, the songs in the film are absolutely dreadful, with forced rhymes and twee lyrics a common factor: don't expect the accompaning soundtrack album to exactly sell out in the shops. A good idea to praise the inventor of the mute switch, methinks. Aside from that, they are a couple of moments for grown-ups in the movie, like when a police artist does a Picasso rather than what he is instructed to do, but such parts are rare and mostly this is a kid-only enterprise.

Basically this is an ideal babysitter for the sprogs when Mum and Dad are busy round the house, but anybody over the age of 10 will probably quickly tire of it any go off to do something more interesting. By all means watch it with your young un's, but don't be surprised if you nod off after half an hour. There are certain cartoon films out there designed for all the family and people of all ages, like Shrek and Ice Age. This is not one of them.

5/10

Is this movie represented by the band called Lost in Paris out of Philadelphia at www. lost in Paris band. com (no spaces)

I was curious because I do not think there is a very close connection, but perhaps one of the band members is somehow related to the director of the film.

In fact I believe I did hear one of the members saying something about that, and that is how they came up with the name. Perhaps they were trying to promote familiarity with the movie title in artistic circles.

Still it seems a very remote possibility as the music performed is not original, but rather cover songs

I am currently 18 years old, but this movie scarred me so much that I remember every detail of the plot. Basically, Madeline get snatched by a creepy dude who wants her parents money so he pretends to be her uncle. So then he takes her to a CREEPY LACE FACTORY in A BASEMENT with other sad little girls who got SNATCHED. WHAT!!! THATS SO SCARY!! I thought I was going to get snatched and exploited for child labor!! And I remember this poor little girl with black hair got her hair turned into lace because she disobeyed and Madeline almost also got her hair cut off for red lace. WHO CAME UP WITH THIS PLOT!!! I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW!! And then all the other little children from Madelines school have to find her based on the beads of Madelines mothers necklace that broke off along the way to the creepy lace factory. Parents, don't show your kids this unless you want them to be shook about it throughout their adult lives.

This movie gave me awful nightmares as a kid. Even watching it now, it creeps me out. And I'm a huge horror fan. But ig if your kid isn't scared by that sort of thing, it'd be a good one.