Review of The Little Prince (2015) by Alberto A — 19 Dec 2015

This first ever animated film adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéryâ??s The Little Prince could not be more magical. I never read the story when I was a kid, however I have heard nothing short of wonders from all the people that grew up with it and it makes me wish I had read it as a child. What is incredibly amazing about this film, directed by Mark Osborne, is that itâ??s not a straight-up adaptation, it mainly focuses on how the story of the Little Prince has an effect on the life of a little girl.

The story follows this Little Girl who is trapped in a box called â??my motherâ??s plan of MY lifeâ?? and does not know how to enjoy life, which is mostly what you are supposed to do when you are a child. Her mother wants her to study all summer so that she can get into the best academy in town. She does not let her play, or hang out with friends, she just had to make sure her life passed by according to her motherâ??s plan. However, her fate crosses paths with her neighbor, an old and lonely Aviator with wonderful stories to tell who tips over the girlâ??s uptight life created by her mother and submerges her into a world filled with imagination; something she had never been exposed to. What was the story he told the girl? The story of how he met a Little Prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely bigger than himself.

As you can see, the aim of this adaptation is to create a story-within-a-story situation in which there is an extra storyline that is not part of the original source. The story of the Little Girl who meets the Aviator/Author of the novella is not part of the actual classic that most people know of, however, it works perfectly because not only they are telling the story of the Little Prince, but they are also bringing forth the effect this had on a girl who needed to find some guidance outside her motherâ??s, and ended up finding it through the art of storytelling. Which is beautiful because it makes Osborneâ??s The Little Prince into an ode to storytelling of Life of Pi proportions. It is really easy to overlook the effect of a good story in a personâ??s life, therefore I am stoked that this film created a scenario in which they showcased how the life of this girl changed after she met this old guy with a crazy story to tell.

One of the advantages of this artistic decision is that we see the character of the little girl evolve and dynamically change based on the â??teachingsâ?? of the actual novella. The character of the Little Prince stands for creativity, for open-mindedness, and for thinking outside the box, and in turn criticizes rigid and methodical routines without meaning and spontaneity. These are all things that the little girl learns how to achieve due to the build-up of her relationship with the Aviator and the concept of the Little Prince. Therefore, in a way, the little girl can pass as the audience in terms of what we learn from the Little Prince.

Another advantage of adding the above-mentioned storyline is that because of this narrative structure, the creative team of The Little Prince decided to make the little girlâ??s story all CG, while the story of the Prince was some sort of crêpe paper stop-motion animation, and they both look A-MA-ZING. I seriously cannot imagine the film without this distinction, because it adds up to the fact that the source of this film comes from a little childrenâ??s story. Furthermore, accompanying the story is the gorgeous score by Hans Zimmer and Richard Harvey. It is probably the prettiest score by Zimmer Iâ??ve heard in YEARS.

The Little Prince is definitely one for the ages. It allows people to relive this classic story in the most magically cinematic way possible, and for those who never read nor knew of the story during childhood, like myself, it gives us an opportunity to experience it through the eyes of a little girl.