Princes et Princesses

A French silhouette animated movie.

Don't get fooled by the title. This is not a cheesy corny animation movie for dumb kids or dumb parents. This is old-style storytelling, classic animation, in which the story is what matters the most. The movie is mostly for children, but will also enchant adults, especially if you like fables.

The movie is, in fact, a compilation of a cartoon series special shown in French TV. It contains six stories: The princess of Diamonds, the Boy and the Fig Tree, The witch, The Old Lady's Cape, The Crunch Queen and the Fabulo, and Prince & Princess. There are two 17th-18th century stories, a story set in Old Egypt, another set in Europe in the Middle Ages, another set in Japan in the 19th century, and another set in year 3000. The stories are based in old folk stories, Grimm Bros-like, but revamped, updated, and humourised. The stories are embedded with a "moral" message, so they are perfect for little children, but all them also have a a hint of naughtiness that will keep adults engaged.

The movie is a shadow-puppet show, with black characters. However, the design of the "puppets" is extremely delicate, precise and detailed, and sometimes looks like filigree. The characters are superimposed on backgrounds in different color, in which the landscape and vegetation are superposed in a darker hue but "diluted" or water-colored. As in other Michel Ocelot's movies, the drawing of the vegetation is purposely precise and artistic, with a naïf style inspired in the art and cultural images of the cultures the stories are set on. It looks so cool and artistic!

I watched it in French with English subtitles, but the French is so beautiful and clear that anybody with a little knowledge of the language could understand it without need of the subtitles. The actors in the original are great, and the voices are delightful.

The stories are linked by the conversations of a group of animators in their study, who are trying to make a puppet show and tell a story by using elements of art, dressing and style of the time in which they want to set the story. The linking segments are the part I liked the least in the movie, as the movie would have still been great without that.

It is funny that an "old style" movie had such a contemporary feeling and style. Not everything modern needs to be CGI to succeed in conveying a message, it just needs a good story and imagination.

When you watch an animation you usually don't expect such a thing as "Princes et Princesses". Basically this movie is a collection of tiny animations (six in total) whose plots align to those of ancient tales. So we're presented with several "topoi" (mainly involving princes and princesses), as well as cultural settings (ancient Egypt and Japan to name two). In the end, it is just like a transposition/adaption of good stories written in the past, all packed in one robust animation.

The overall idea being good, drawings look simple but original, and you may even say that a new style of making animations began with the assembling of this movie.

This is also going to be a great view for your kids, in case you have any.

Interesting to see that these tales have the same format as Tales of the Night, and that they go back to a 1989 French tv show. And I thought the costume machine was supposed to be 3D printing!

Sebastian's Favorite: The Sorceress (he thought it was funny and liked the robot dragon that pooped missiles back at the attackers) Sienna's Favorite: The Fig (she liked the Ancient Egyptian theme and that the bad attendant got himself killed instead of the young man) Paul's Favorite: The Sorceress (She's not bad after all, in fact she's a brilliant inventor!)

Princes & Princesses was interesting, because you don't see that kind of animated fare every day in this time of computer animated movie making all around.

Even if I don't know if this kind of story telling have the biggest fanbase around the world, I can say that I found it charming in the mix of a basic fairy-tale formula used with an outside premise tying the segments together in a funny way.

As an homage to the oldest surviving animated movie, the 1926 shadow puppet animated Adventures Of Prince Achmed, the magic is strong in this one with gorgeous art, atmospheric music and enthusiastic voice work even though the fanbase may be small.

This unusual animated movie is a children's movie for adults. Six short, beautifully animated, stories. Traditional fairy tales with princes, princesses, monsters and witches. Each story different, but in the same spirit. The animation technique is like nothing you've ever seen before. It's a gem of a movie, and I recommend it to anyone tired of standard Hollywood movies.