Deeply touching, funny, human and quirky stop motion animated film from France.
While theoretically for kids, any film that opens with a depressed 9 year old accidentally killing his verbally abusive alcoholic mother (and treating it as sad black comedy) is not exactly aimed at 7 year olds.
There's a lovely emotional complexity to this brief feature (66 minutes), where life at an orphanage full of kids from circumstances as damaging and horrible as 'Zucchini's actually has a kind of odd sweetness. Characters evolve and show new sides, and are wonderfully voiced very naturally in part by real kids. Plus the adults at the orphanage, as well as the policeman who bring's Zucchini there really try to provide love, support and fun for their charges as best they can (and when have we ever seen THAT in a film or even book? 'Orphanage' and 'cop' are usually other words for 'evil'). That humanity makes the limbo where these deeply wounded but wonderfully resilient kids live rich and real – and often very funny.
I really appreciated how often I had no idea how things ( a plot twist or a relationship) would turn out. I liked the film from the start, but it just grew and grew on me as I watched it, topped off by a wonderfully odd 'outtake' after the film ends. Creative, alive and terrific.
NB: I had just finished writing this review when I learned that the film is being re-voiced by some (admittedly excellent) US actors for release here. That may work out great, but all the performances in the original are so lovely and perfect, that I would suggest seeing the subtitled version if at all possible.
While theoretically for kids, any film that opens with a depressed 9 year old accidentally killing his verbally abusive alcoholic mother (and treating it as sad black comedy) is not exactly aimed at 7 year olds.
There's a lovely emotional complexity to this brief feature (66 minutes), where life at an orphanage full of kids from circumstances as damaging and horrible as 'Zucchini's actually has a kind of odd sweetness. Characters evolve and show new sides, and are wonderfully voiced very naturally in part by real kids. Plus the adults at the orphanage, as well as the policeman who bring's Zucchini there really try to provide love, support and fun for their charges as best they can (and when have we ever seen THAT in a film or even book? 'Orphanage' and 'cop' are usually other words for 'evil'). That humanity makes the limbo where these deeply wounded but wonderfully resilient kids live rich and real – and often very funny.
I really appreciated how often I had no idea how things ( a plot twist or a relationship) would turn out. I liked the film from the start, but it just grew and grew on me as I watched it, topped off by a wonderfully odd 'outtake' after the film ends. Creative, alive and terrific.
NB: I had just finished writing this review when I learned that the film is being re-voiced by some (admittedly excellent) US actors for release here. That may work out great, but all the performances in the original are so lovely and perfect, that I would suggest seeing the subtitled version if at all possible.