Review of The Little Prince (2015) by Adrianna G — 16 Dec 2017

I never read the book but upon seeing the trailer I went into this movie optimistic, however this is not a great movie.While it's an interesting movie to watch as an adult and it's not really overtly violent or vulgar, I would NOT say this is a children's movie.

While the animations on their own are quite nice and even beautiful at times, most of the characters are unlikable/unpleasant/uncomfortable to watch. The protagonists mother is worried about her daughter's future, but she just comes off as neurotic and overly controlling by literally planning out and keeping track of every minute of her daughter's life.

You don't want to sympathise with the mother because she appears way too high strung and borderline mentally-abusively controlling, but what does that teach? That it's wrong for parents to have high expectations for their children and that going to a prestigious school is a bad thing that should be feared? It also further encourages the little girl to do whatever she wants and justifies her actions, because it really is a crappy situation for her.

They move to a new home only to have their next door neighbor, an old man, blast a hole through their brand new home and destroy half the stuff inside. Yet the old man still convinces this dumb innocent little girl to start spending all her time with him IN SECRET because he's "fun".

Even though I knew the movie was trying to teach a message about not letting go of your childhood imagination and passion, the way they executed this idea just came off dark and more like a veiled pedophilia/kidnapping story.

The old man appeals to the little girls desire for freedom and adventure, and encourages her to spend more and more time away from home and with him without the knowledge of her mother. Because apparently it's ok to sneak off and hang out at pretty much a complete strangers home in secret as long as you're having fun.

He talks about going away one day, which is obviously his way of trying to explain death in an easier way but she eventually says she wants to go with him. She doesn't know he really means dying, but even if he didn't you see how easily he could set this up for her to willingly run away from home with him? Is this something you want your kids to watch and then just blindly trust strangers because they know they'll be more fun and free than with "uptight" parents? This is a perfect way to kidnap a child and give them stockholm syndrome.

The other characters like the narcissist is just odious to watch whenever he's on screen I know he's meant to be unpleasant but his depiction is just too mentally heavy and demented for any child under the age of 12-13 really.

The little prince and the paper fox has weird heavily symbolic dialogue throughout the entirety of the movie, and while it can be somewhat interesting at times for adults it can be very weird and too metaphysical for children.

Authority figures are always represented as dark, unemotional, or even scary and mean. It's an interesting movie visually, but the way the story is executed ends up ruining a good plot concept and sending weird confusing messages instead like 'playing with strangers is fun' and 'its ok to like to your parents as long as you get some freedom, it'll all be ok in the end'.

Its probably ok for edgy highschool age kids, but I would not show this to a child under the age of 12 even 13 depending on how impressionable you think your child is. 2 stars for the interesting dynamic animation alone.