As Férias do Pequeno Nicolau

Charming comedy from France about a boy's holiday with his parents, set a few decades ago.

Despite the flawed subtitles on Amazon that kept displaying 1 as 'I', I enjoyed almost every second of this kid's misadventures with his motley crew of friends. It has all the elements of traditional farce, with some misunderstandings and classic slapstick thrown in too.

All the cast are great, and the director really captures what it must've been like in vacationing in a traditional seaside France town during the mid-20th century. Funny and entertaining for almost it's entire run length, this gets an easy 7/10 from me.

Those simple and delicate children's movies straight out of the 80's, there's no way not to love it, I watched together with my goddaughter, pleasant warm and cozy...

Since I do not have access to Parental guide editing, I am adding it here as FYI. The movie has a scene where a woman can be seen running away from the camera completely nude. Keep this in mind if you are considering this movie for young kids. The male character is nude as well, his critical parts are hidden behind a piece of garment (held in his hand).

I liked the first movie much better. The actor who played Nicholas in the first movie was great. Even though the new actor is very good, I would have loved to see the same actor for continuity. Kad Merad is great as always.

The original Nicolas film, still directed by Laurent Tirard, was cute and funny. Its humour relied upon genuine written material forming consistent scenes and situations, and often based on the child's point-of-view, as in René Goscinny's exquisite little stories. "Les Vacances" relies a lot on nods and references to past cinema, and the rest is either disjointed (loose ends - what happens in the end with the tight spot at the nude beach Nicolas' father gets himself into?...) or simply unlikely. Even though the excellent Valérie Lemercier and Kad Merad still play Nicolas' parents, the actors in general, save for Bouli Lanners as Bernique, are insincere in their delivery and reactions and/or poorly directed. The father is supposed to be heartbroken by his wife extending her stay without him at the crazy big-money party, yet his face remains almost expressionless all the while...

Also, one scene suggests that hurting severely a live animal can be perceived as humorous, which I have found particularly tasteless.

I can say, for sure, as all of Goscinny's work, this film will delight kids and grown-ups alike. For children, there's a lot going on for Nicolas and his family during a vacation moved from the mountains to the sea. But for all of us who like light-spirited films as deep ones, this one breaks barriers seldom seen in recent times. If you want to be thrilled by technical issues that will not scream "I'm here" during your first watch, please, watch it again! They designed this film with much more detail than even Goscinny's stories when they were depicted in its time. Color is of the essence. And here, designers got their hands on it as if it was the end of the world. It's stunning, to say the least, the use of color and textures to make this film a truly memorable feat of design. Photography, on the other end, is superb. The night scenes are beautiful and luscious. The time-warp costumes and color matching of absolutely everything helps a lot in telling the story. And to cap it all, the cars are all of the era, and not just "period" cars. They chose a line-up of beautiful museum quality, colorful and perfectly matching cars with specs for the time-frame of the film. If you love the Facel-Vega, Citroën, Peugeot, Renault, Simca... you're in for a treat.

Watch the kids! Watch dad and mom and granny! They are great. Of course, there may be some flaws, but I see them as part of a funny, uplifting, absurd and very very French film. What cinema should always be: entertaining and beautiful, no matter the subject.