Posted at 11:30 a.m.
After devoting six years to Dili to Paris, Michel Ocelot felt the need to make a lighter animated film. He offers three, of about 25 minutes each, of totally different invoices. A storyteller skilfully serves as a common thread between them. She stresses from the outset that “those who only have one story do not have much imagination”. It’s a great way for the father of the little African hero Kirikou to say that he still has plenty to spare.
The work stands out above all visually. The 79-year-old director uses various animation techniques, which he has refined during his fruitful career, to create three distinct universes. The profile presentation suits the first story particularly well, Pharaoh!, which is inspired by the posture of the figures in Egyptian bas-reliefs and paintings. The black silhouettes in the tale The handsome savage add a touch of mystery to the menacing story. After such sobriety, imbued with poetry, the richness of colors and details is only more striking in the third tale, The Princess of Roses and the Prince of Donuts.
All three love stories, however, are bland and populated by one-dimensional characters. The first, inspired by The Dream Stele and produced with the collaboration of the Louvre Museum, relates the conquest of Egypt by a king of northern Sudan, with the aim of conquering his sweetheart. Predictable is the least interesting. The second, with shadow puppets dominated by a tyrannical king, is based on The tale of the handsome savage, collected by the French writer Henri Pourrat. The third story, the fanciest and most successful, recalls the fabulous stories of the Thousand and one Night.
In the three tales, taken from the traditional imagination, the parents, authoritarians, shout after their children, who rebel. In the first two, the princesses wait for their brave prince to then marry him. It’s heartbreaking, in 2022. The Turkish princess is the only one to play an active role in her destiny. Love triumphs every time, but without really arousing emotion. It’s a shame, because the intentions were obviously good.
Animation
The Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess
Michael Ocelot
With the voices of Oscar Lesage, Claire de La Rüe du Can, Aïssa Maïga
1 h 23 Indoors