woodyweaver

An earlier comment was sophisticated slapstick, but while there are the occasional pokes in the eye -- the scene where an exploding cigar goes off and all the spies silenced weapons go "pfffht" (no blood, just lots of people falling over with silly expressions) is wonderful -- I think I'd instead classify this as sophisticated silliness. Reminds me of the old David Niven movies, except much less restrained.

But I also want to point out that the movie ends with a quote: "Every person is entitled to the respect of his or her private life. Penal Code, Article 9." Indeed, the wry tongue in cheek is pointed squarely at the absurdities of the French intelligence community. I find looking at the movie in that light adds another bit of fun to identifying the "good guys" and the bad guys.

Well worth your time.

First, let me trot out my creds. I took a PhD in combinatorial mathematics from Ohio State in 1986. I'm going to claim this is relevant for two reasons: one, that this cartoon is based upon some deep and beautiful mathematics; that this material can open up into deeper study for any student, from junior high to postgraduate.

The second is that this can open up mathematics for kids, and I will offer myself as an example. I remember seeing this when I was pretty young, and really got hooked on the bit about learning to play pool "by the Diamond method". It offered that math was "a lot more than just two times two", and that it was cool to study math.

The cartoon focuses deeply on non-arithmetic aspects of math, and that is welcome. Even as an adult, I still find it entertaining, but would be something I would give to any kid I cared about to expose him to the art behind math.

Buy it for the kids, or for yourself. But be prepared to study number theory and algebraic geometry, if you follow the leads -- rich material awaits... and as the cartoon notes, there are still many other doors to open and new things to discover...