Jack et la mécanique du coeur

The porcelain characters were convincing; so much so they were able to bring the more cartoon- like Tinkerbell type character in over the top. I thought wait a minute that is animation within an animation. There were a lot of good elements. I liked the carnival scenes. It needed more suspense though. It dragged slightly towards the end I felt. It seemed too young for adults to watch and too old for children; and probably a tad insipid for teenagers.I wasn't sure whom it was aimed at. Some kids would lose interest and some adults would too for different reasons. It was a sincere movie and the animation was different and interesting. But somehow the story was a bit unconvincing even if you suspended your disbelief to enjoy the movie. I mean I bought into the movie to enjoy it but it did not grab me enough with any compelling elements or drag me along enough. It had a lot of good original components and ideas. but it needed more suspense and it did not create enough concern for the characters. But to be fair I kept thinking,"get that key back'. It seemed to sacrifice the overall plot in preference to style. Indeed it was very stylish animation. I don't think it will be a cult film in America because the English accents might be a bit foreign sounding for United States audiences to engage with. Its good but something indefinable seemed to be lacking. Yet it could have just been my own obtuseness. There were many things I liked about it but the story itself did not really take hold of me.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart was a French animated film that took its jolly sweet time to come to the UK, even though the English voice cast was British and the French version is unavailable in the UK. It was distracting to see the lip-syncing not matching the dialoguing.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart was an interesting film that looked like it came from the mind of Tim Burton. It looked fantastic due to its strange look like the accordion train and strange circus. The film was based on a concept album and a novel by Dionysos. And this was a double edge sword because the film did have some strong music but the plot seemed like an excuse to tie together some music videos. An example of this was the Jack the Ripper song which seemed pointless.

Despite the story issues there were still some moments of tragic beauty like the puppet show and the ending. I did find the lyric 'rip your clothes off with my teeth' (sung by a 10-year-old character) and the advice that seduction works best when it looks like you're not trying. Yep, it's a French film.

Sadly Samantha Barks only has two songs in the film. Most of her character's songs kept the French singer, Olivia Ruiz. This is despite Barks being known for singing .

it is one of films who you expect. for long, long time. because, in a beautiful, touching, unique form , it is a film about yourself. and this is the most important thing. it is a trip in the heart of childhood, the old fashion childhood. and this transforms it in a gem. the source of its special spell/magic - the great work of Mathias Malzieu. . his novel. his adaptation. and, his Jack. it is difficult to define it. it is not perfect and this is one of basic good things. it is not Pixar or Disney and this is the second virtue. it is a meet with well known characters from old, oldies stories . and it is enough. because, in fact, it is a an admirable game of imagination.

The visual animation of this movie is notches above the average Pixar and Disney fare, especially in its attention to details and inventiveness, framed from interesting perspectives with captivating clarity.

It started of with enough heart ('cuckoo' no-doubt) and sufficient bizarre to draw you in. Unfortunately, about a quarter of the way through the plot starts to falter with too many unnecessary songs that doesn't add to the story but only detracts from it - songs that are averagely catchy but tend to be repetitive and too pop-oriented to capture the essence of the movie.

The reason for all the intrusive songs is as follows from Wikipedia: "Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is based on the concept album by the French rock band Dionysos, and on the illustrated novel La Mécanique du cœur written by the band's lead singer Mathias Malzieu. The music of the film was entirely composed by Dionysos"

May have worked as an audio album, but for this movie, Luc Besson (one of two producers) should have instructed that the visuals and the story alone be allowed to do the "singing", backed by good inspiring theme music.

The English dubbing (from the original French) is definitely one of the better done ones - I suspect many (but not all) of the original French actors, also did the voice-over in English, including most (but not all) the songs.

Overall, would still strongly recommend this animation, if but for the visual feast alone!

I saw this in English. I suspect that a fair amount of nuance of the script, lyrics is lost in translation. Much of the film is incoherent if you think about, even more so than other fantasias. I am still not entirely sure what happened in the end. This largely works in the film's favor because the oddness of the text fits the visually whimsy. This feels very much like an early Burton film and it has same sense otherworldly quality.

The animation is gloriously expressive. They really push the style into some surreal and dream like images. It is a lot more striking then the generic photoreal stuff that you get in a ton of American animation. I might not understood what was happening at all times but I did understand the emotion-a rich melancholy-because the animation and the music let me know.

This was a very good film.