Ma vie de Courgette

"My Life as a Zucchini" was nominated for Best Animated Feature for the 2017 Academy Awards but lost to "Zootopia". It's a shame, as 2017 offered three very deserving films (I would also include "Kubo") and only one could take home the award. Perhaps my love for "My Life as a Zucchini" is influenced by my work as a social worker and therapist, as the story is a hopeful tale about children who have been shamefully abused by their parents...a common problem I had to deal with on the job.

The story begins with a child stuck in the attic of a horrible home while his mother is downstairs getting drunk and violent. When she tries to enter the attic to beat the boy, he panics and slams down the trap door...and the mother falls to her death. Soon the child is being talked to be a very kind police officer, Raymond, and he's surprised to hear that the boy's mother just called him 'Zucchini' and that's the only name he knows. Fortunately for poor little Zucchini, the man is touched by this case and regularly visits him in the children's home where he is sent to live.

As for the children's home, seven children reside in the place and they are given kindness and love. It's actually a pretty nice place, but your heart goes out to the children and the hell they've had to go through during their short lives. Most of the story is about Zucchini and how he adjusts to the place as well as his falling for a girl who arrives soon after him, Camille. And, fortunately, the picture, while VERY moving and sad, has a nice happy ending.

This is a very, very special stop-motion film. While it's very artistic and well done it is something more...it's very sweet and has a depth to it you really don't expect in animation. The Swiss film is available in both the original French language version and an English dub (which is very good) on the same DVD. Perhaps other versions are also available, but on the DVD I saw these were the two language choices. Well worth seeing...but have a Kleenex or two handy just in case.

The way they made this film was very original, and good originality is very valuable and worth watching. I love stop-motion, in this is an excellent stop-motion, because of everything in the film impressed me. The characters are very original, even the name that the main character has is amazing. The screenplay embraces so many genuine topics, as love and the different ways it can be shown; it has humor but it also wants to make you cry and fall in love with each character. The production is incredible, amazing, out of this world; and I couldn't ask for more, it made me want to cry because of this simple but outstanding production! This motion picture is really worth watching, is very touching; and if I could only watch one movie for the rest of my life it will be this one.

"Many people, for many reasons, feel rootless - but orphans and abandoned or abused children have particular cause." Christina Baker Kline

Stories about orphans such as Dickens' Oliver Twist have a special place--they remind us of what a gift family is. Having loving parents and siblings provides safe haven from hunger of the stomach and the heart. Claude Barras' moving stop- motion animation, My Life as a Zucchini, explores the plight of seven young orphans with emphasis on Zucchini, a name given to him by his drunken mother.

As he goes off to an orphanage, he discovers more challenges than being with his mom, whose memory he keeps by carrying around one of her discarded beer cans. The usual bully (Simon) is in residence along with some meek kids and with Camille, a saucy ten year old ready to take on Simon's cynicism and Zucchini's love.

As you can tell by the entrance of Camille, all is not lost at this homeless haven, much less the emerging sense of cooperation and compassion. The film gently approaches each major crisis with equanimity, relying not on easy solutions or catastrophes but on the emerging sense of cooperation and sincere love.

It's difficult to determine what makes this animation so human with its characters and their eccentricities; all I know is that I felt deeply about each orphan right down to the wicked aunt. It's not sentimental, mind you, just powerfully humane and deserving its Oscar nomination for best animation.

Could it be the Keane-like big eyes, so expressively alive with emotion? Possibly so. At any rate, this animation will appeal to all ages and answer some age-old questions about the depth of loneliness and the salvation adoption can bring.

"Orphanages are the only places that ever left me feeling empty and full at the same time." John M. Simmons

Icare or as he prefers, Zucchini, lives with his drunken single mother. He accidentally kills his mom and is sent to a children's home. Police officer Raymond befriends him. Simon bullies him but becomes a good friend. New girl Camille arrives and he falls for her.

This is an European stop-motion animated film. It has an unusual intriguing look. The character designs have a beautiful ugliness. My only drawback is its shorter running time. There is something odd about this inbetween length and leaves me missing something. I do like Simon's turn especially. Initially, he is a full-on bully but he turns into one of the most compelling character in the movie. The story has some real heart. This is an Oscar nominated animation.

'My Life as a Courgette' was the last of the five 2016/7 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominees viewed by me, and that it is (to me) the weakest of the nominees and still manages to be a very good film is testament to how great the other four films ('The Red Turtle', 'Kubo', 'Moana' and the winner 'Zootropolis', so very stiff competition) were.

There is not a whole lot wrong with 'My Life as a Courgette'. At just over an hour it is a little too short and it did have a story that was deserving of a longer length, and the depiction of orphanages (usually a dark and unhappy environment that people can't wait to leave) is rather rose-tinted. Otherwise, it is a beautifully done film that has much more to it than the quirky if silly title, the cute-looking characters and bright colourful visuals make out. Not classing these attributes as bad things in any way, but it is so easy hearing and seeing it advertised to get the wrong idea about 'My Life as a Courgette', thinking it will be a quirky film with children as its primary target audience, bright colours and witty humour when actually there is much to the film than that.

It is a beautifully animated film certainly. It is very vibrantly bright and colourful, with parts of truly haunting atmosphere, a vividly immersive world and meticulously detailed backgrounds and overall visuals from the little things to the bigger effects. Just as good are the eye-catching character designs that are modelled smoothly and even with the oddball looks look and behave very authentically, for characters they are very unique and charmingly unusual (what other title character has blue hair and a red nose?).

Furthermore, the music score is appropriately atmospheric and whimsical, while the writing has quirks and poignancy. The story could have benefited from a longer length but still charms, amuses and moves, with a surprisingly sober tone, while not being afraid to take risks and brave more difficult subjects with sensitivity and never heavy-handedness. This is including one of the boldest opening sequences in any animated film (perhaps the boldest since that for Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'). Everything is paced beautifully too.

Characters are very easy to warm to and have engaging, distinct personalities. Voice acting in both the American and particularly French versions is very emotive.

On the whole, beautiful film and has much more to it than one would think. 8/10 Bethany Cox