Pourquoi j'ai pas mangé mon père

There is obviously a lot of passion in the ratings for this movie, it's mostly either 1 or 10 stars. I didn't have any expectations for the movie, so I was happily surprised. I watched the original French version, and I can well understand that people who don't know or like the two generations of French comedians Jamel Debbouze and Louis de Funès didn't get into the movie, especially Jamel, with his fast French-Moroccan accent from the suburbs. But I found both totally suitable to the characters and Jamel absolutely terrific. Actually, all of the characters' voices were excellent, there was a lot of work choosing the right voices, accents and tonality for these characters, in addition to the funny dialog. A great family comedy, kids will easily follow the simple plot, although kids and people not familiar with French culture will not benefit from all the hidden humor like some references. There is a bit of the Croods' theme, a tribe leaving its safe haven for the Unknown, and quite a few other borrowings from it, but the whole story is still very different. The almost human faces were a bit upsetting to me, almost too realistic. ;) Definitely a reference animation I will probably watch a few more times, one star less than The Croods I already watched at least 5 times, in English and in French. And there's not that many French full feature animation movies either.

There's a lot of story here but for some reason the people that made this movie decided to throw a lot of it out. Back in 1994 Roy Lewis, a British author, wrote a satirical book called "Evolution Man: Or How I Ate My Father". It's a wickedly funny book about a group of upwardly mobile hominids from the dawn of time. The father has just discovered fire and is learning about it's uses. Mother makes sure her kids finish all the toad on their plate before being excused from the table. Junior has made the first cave painting. And Uncle thinks that coming down from the trees and making flint tools will eventually lead to them being killed in a big bloody war. It's satire of modern issues and ideas set several million years ago. And one day somebody decided to make a movie about it. And it's awful.

From what I understand there's two versions of this movie. There's the original French that goes into more detail and there's the butchered English version that cuts out certain scenes. I haven't seen the English version so I can only speak of the French version. And even then, it's terrible.

Now the animation is... okay. There's nothing ground breaking here. It's adequate in a Saturday morning cartoon kind of way. But for some reason they decided to give the apes in this family very human looking faces. And my god, they go straight into the uncanny valley. They're downright terrifying. That coupled with how they move in rather cartoonish ways just increases the uncomfortable feeling you get.

I wanted to watch this movie to see how bad it could be. But by about the thirty minute mark I just couldn't take it any more. I couldn't focus on the story, which was butchered I might add, because every few seconds the faces kept bothering me.

Don't watch this movie. It'll give you nightmares. Read the book instead.

Literally the worst movie I have ever seen and will ever see. I don't know what possessed me to watch the whole thing, perhaps the fact I was stunned by such an atrocity, how it was even possible to create an injustice such as this.

The characters, CGI and voice acting are abysmal, the story nonsensical. Actually, describing the story as non-existent would be more accurate.

Every scene makes me shake my head in bemusement, confused and afraid of this abomination. I would go as far as to say this qualifies as the eighth deadly sin. My eyes, brain and body feel violated having watched it. Frankly, it's a crime against humanity that this was ever released.

Obviously it's a Jamel Debouzze Debouzze Debouzze business. If you are not familiar with or not into Jamel Debouzze stuffs and his comic multi-french team you will probably find yourself lost in Debouzze's logic which is Debouzze's way of acting.

The story in 1h36 is about an instantaneous evolution simian-homo erectus which coexists with pterodactyls, the use of fire, music, dynasties...they don't respect how events occurs on the time line...which is not a bad thing if you have not yet had enough of Jamel Debouzze because you may like the way they get through it. You will definitely be disappointed if you try to compare this to, let's say "The Croods"

Watch with kids if you have time

I'm quite picky to like movies, especially movies for children... I understand the bad ratings that got this one. But i want to say that i enjoyed very much this movie... I don't know where did it come from, it's like an UFO, you could find a few flaws to it, i guess, but it really worked for me... I'm french and about of the age of the writer (Jamel Debbouze)... so maybe that helped me to be synchronized with what he wanted to do. I felt this movie has been made with heart, every character, every moment captivated me, i feel it's like a music that can work for you or not... In my case, again, it worked from start to finish, even if the story sometimes lacks of credibility, it really didn't matter, the voices of the characters and their acting made me always laughed or smiled or something... They even imitated a very famous comic actor of the past of the french cine (Louis de Funes)... That was so amazing to hear him almost alive...! I saw it with my kids two or three times, and we often imitate now the way the characters spoke, or jokes they made... So, believe it or not, this movie is one of my favorite, all category, all time! It's a UFO, but made with heart!! I can assure you at least that. But i completely could understand if you won't find anything there enjoyable for yourself. Especially if you're not French and if you see it dubbed in other languages... But try it and see if the music hits you!