The Prophet

I have seen this film twice now. The first time was in Vancouver when most of the adults in the audience were silently weeping. The second time was at it's premiere in Lebanon; the author's birth country, where the reaction was the same. This film is not just about the insightful poetry nor is it about the stunning animation only. It is about how beautifully they compliment each other and how moving the result is. This is a film that touches the soul and the grief we bury so deep, yet somehow does so in a joyful way. Children and young adults will also enjoy the film as it is a movie that offers different things to different ages and different people. Congratulations to Salma Hayek, Roger Allers and the rest of the team for creating a movie which is unique.

Kahlil Gibran's book The Prophet was an engaging mix of poetry, spirituality and philosophy musing upon subjects including love, food, and death. It's quite lovely.

While the book has no story or characters, someone decided to try and turn it into a movie. The basic premise is a young, mute girl and her mother meet an imprisoned philosopher the state is afraid of and travel a little with him. Along the way, he muses on subjects like love and food and death.

The framing story, done by the folks behind is very engaging, with likable characters and a simple but appealing story. The problem is the musings, each a Gibran poems animated by a different animator and either read by Liam Neeson (perfect voice for it) or turned into a pop song.

I hated most of these. The animation is rarely interesting enough to stand on its own, and because there are tons of pauses to let the animation breath, Gibran's words are unfocussed and lack their melodic rhythms. Also the songs are pretty dreadful.

The end result is an hour of entertaining drama broken up by tedious little animation of poems that stand better on their own.

Some people seem to have really enjoyed this, but I can't recommend it. Or at least, not unless you fast forward through all the poetry.

It's difficult to simply judge the film without passing some judgment on the content of Gibran's poetry, which, in the context of the film, sounds even more like self-help advice. So those who like spiritualism, practical philosophy, and one man's interesting (then and still now) take on the world will probably find the content pretty awesome. For the rest of us, as I said, at times, it sounds a bit like self-help stuff, or new age stuff that is not new at all. Interestingly, a lot of the stuff about labor and work sounded very much like the stuff the Soviets would love (don't know if he was popular in the USSR).

The film attempts to tell the story of Mustafa, who is been on house arrest for seven years and is finally being released (deported back to his own country). The details of how he came to be in this other country are fuzzy, but it is clear that he is a poet, painter, and philosopher, and his ideologies have landed him in this bind. Mustafa befriends Almitra, who has stopped speaking since her father died a year ago. Almitra's mom does the housework for Mustafa under the (clumsy) watch of Halim (or Halil?) Everyone loves Mustafa. Townsfolk loves him. The cleaning lady and the kid love him. Even the guard loves him. There is a very clear distinction between good and evil here, which will appeal to younger children, and maybe not so much to the older crowd. So Mustafa is taken through the town (mistake!) to the boat that is supposed to take him back, but needless to say, things don't turn out that way at all. There is some strong imagery here (complete with a firing squad, but we only hear them fire).

I think most of the content is out of reach of most younger children. The stuff about love and life, about how parents do not own their children got through to the kids who were watching around me in the theater. I was surprised that even the youngest did not fall asleep, as some parts were just Mustafa speaking about stuff. I believe this s due to the amazing animation work by many great artists.

If Gibran's work does not interest you at all, I still would say this is a must see, if you like animation art. There's great stuff here. I dare say something for every taste and preference in terms of animation art.

All in all, it was a great film to see on the big screen. Animation was top notch and engaging (as the kids around me proved it). The story involving Almitra also appealed to the children, i think, though not to me as much. Mustafa's story is a classic case of denial of and persecution of freedom of speech; it is good to see something like this being made.

I've never written a review on IMDb, but saw this film's world premiere at TIFF and have been annoyed that nobody else has written about it, so I'm starting the conversation.

The two questions you need to ask yourself if you're wondering whether you'll like Kahlil Gibran's the Prophet are: Have you enjoyed Disney movies (traditionally animated, not the studio's modern Pixar-lite offerings), and do you like Gibran's poetry?

(If the answer to one or both is yes and you actually have an opportunity to see the Prophet, please stop reading and watch it so you can add to the discussion.)

If even Beauty and the Beast, every segment in Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, or the Lion King (whose co-director Roger Allers wrote and directed this) left you cold, the Prophet isn't likely to convert you. None of the key staff except Allers, storyboard artist Will Finn and segment directors Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi have connections to the Mouse House, but the Prophet's main story looks and, for the most part, feels like a Disney movie: a simple, effective parable about the power of ideas focusing on a girl (Quvenzhané Wallis)'s relationship with a poet (Liam Neeson) whose words nearly led to a Middle Eastern dictator (Frank Langhella) being overthrown years before the movie starts. (The setting resembles 1920s Algeria, but is wisely fictional, its name drawn from Gibran's book.)

After an introduction that echoes Aladdin and a lecture from her mother (producer Salma Hayek) that resembles every Disney film with a living parent, Wallis's Almitra winds up at poet Mustafa's shack, where he's been living under house arrest for seven years. But today the dictator's sergeant (Alfred Molina) arrives to inform Mustafa he's free to go - provided he leaves his adopted home forever and renounces those dangerous words.

During the long trek from Mustafa's home at one end of the capital to the dock where his ship awaits on the other, admiring townsfolk stop and ask for his advice about a variety of subjects, which Mustafa dispenses in the form of Gibran's words.

Which brings me to that second question. When Mustafa begins sharing his wisdom by discussing freedom, Liam Neeson - as he will throughout the movie - reads the original poem verbatim:

"At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,/Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them./Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff./And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment."

(You can read the rest here: http://www.katsandogz.com/onfreedom.html)

For my money, if you want to illustrate the power of poetry you can't do much better than Gibran, a Lebanese poet whose seminal work has touched millions around the world (including me) with its articulate, spiritual, multi-faith wisdom on 26 subjects ranging from freedom and work to marriage and children (the poems for which are all included here). I believe Gibran rivals Dr. Seuss and Shakespeare, but have also read that he's less well-known in North America than elsewhere, and that academics have a low opinion of his work. (Perhaps more importantly, none of my friends seem to have heard of him.)

So if you find Gibran's thoughts trite, you might find the movie off-putting as well.

That said, if you can approach it with an open mind anyway, you might still be carried away by the film's most artistic flourish: each of the eight poems used is illustrated by a segment designed and directed by a different international animator, including Bill Plympton, Sita Sings the Blues' Nina Paley, Secret of Kells director Tomm Moore, the aforementioned Brizzi brothers (who were assistant directors on Disney's the Hunchback of Notre Dame), and Mohammed Saeed Harib, creator of a Middle Eastern TV series. Two are even set to music composed by Damien Rice and Once's Glen Hansard.

Unfortunately, as of this writing the film lacks North American distribution - which, I am equally sorry to say, isn't surprising because it's a difficult sell. While the Prophet looks and - again, for the most part - feels like a Disney movie, it differs in one key respect: it knows that in real life you can't simply throw a dictator off a building and suddenly bring peace to a country. Animation is still synonymous with kid's entertainment in too many moviegoers' minds, and while suitable for children, the Prophet isn't aimed at them: little ones are advised to watch it with a parent who can answer the questions they'll inevitably have once the end credits start rolling.

The film isn't perfect - I personally didn't like the music used for the "Children" poem (Paley's segment), and have read grumbling online about Plympton's illustration of "Work" (which I thought was great). Some of the main story's action is poorly timed, and its characters aren't always as expressive as they could be (a consequence of the cel-shaded 3D animation used to bring them to life). But the voice cast (including John Krasinski as a friendly guard) is terrific - Neeson especially is the perfect narrator - and if not everyone will love every segment, each ones' artistry is undeniable. Besides, if you don't like a given sequence, another comes along within a few minutes.

Bottom line: I'm thrilled this movie exists and amazed at what Hayek, who spearheaded the project, was able to pull off with a $12- million budget. It deserves a wider audience.

Greetings again from the darkness. An animated, artistic, philosophical parable based on a 1923 book from a Lebanese poet … it's as if the filmmakers went out of their way to make sure most everyone would be turned off by some aspect. Instead, director Roger Allers delivers a beautiful and thoughtful representation of nine of the 26 stories from Kahlil Gibran's influential best-seller.

The story revolves around Mustafa, an artist and poet who was exiled seven years earlier when his words were deemed harmful to the local regime. Mustafa is informed that he will be granted his freedom to return home, and as he is escorted through town, Mustafa periodically delivers his insightful and inspiring words to the people of the land. These make up the 9 segments (Freedom, Children, Marriage, Work, Love, etc) within the movie, and each of these segments is the unique work of a different renowned artist/director. The artistic style and presentation varies between each segment, and some employ the use of music (Damien Rice, Glen Hansard).

As Mustafa recites the words of Gibran, the individual segments unfold with the artistry of each director. These blend well with the overall story which also features Mustafa's housekeeper and her young daughter (who initially doesn't speak). The voice acting is top notch thanks to Liam Neeson (Mustafa), Salma Hayek (the housekeeper), Quvenzhane Wallis (Almitra), John Krasinski (a lovesick guard), Alfred Molina (Sergeant), and Frank Langella (regime leader). Mr. Neeson is especially effective as the soothing voice of Gibran's words.

This was evidently a pet project of Salma Hayek, who also is Producer of the film. She wisely enlisted director Roger Allers, who has ties to Disney and the hugely popular The Lion King. The film is Disney-esque in its approach, but is certainly not aimed at kids. It's really a blend of the segmented structure of Fantasia, the adult-themed style of Watership Down, and the philosophical meanderings of Gandhi.

Gibran writes that "all work is noble", and the work of these filmmakers certainly is. As with any poetry or philosophy, one must be receptive to the message and willing to be inspired. If not, it's merely "love and flowers".