The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote a novella that captured the imagination of many readers. It is about a prince who lives on his own asteroid when a rose begins growing and demanding more attention than he can give. He decides to leave and he comes across other asteroids each inhabited by an adult who has forgotten what it is like to be a child. He eventually makes his way to Earth where he befriends a fox and an aviator in the Sahara. The Little Prince cannot live on Earth for long and makes a deathly bargain with a snake so he may return to his asteroid. The aviator touched by what he learned from the Prince decides to turn their encounter into a book.
Now you can watch the book come to life. The film is currently streaming on Netflix and it is not quite what I expected. The film is a combination of animation and stop motion and is absolutely gorgeous. The voice acting is also strong. However, I was curious as to how you can adapt such a short, philosophical novella into a full length feature. The answer: by making it a story within a story. The aviator is still telling his story, but you get to see him and his interactions with the world after his experiences as opposed to just reading about them. It works well actually.
The film opens in a world much different than that if the little prince's. The Little Girl (Mackenzie Foy) is preparing to become as an efficient adult as her Mother (Rachel McAdams). The world in which the Little Girl and the Mother live in is extremely bland and predictable. The Mother has planned out every minute if every day so her daughter can grow up o be a great adult. The Little Girl lives this life not knowing any other way to be.
She meets her neighbor the Aviator (Jeff Bridges) and he shares with her the story he has written about his life with the Little Prince. It is when we enter the world of the story that the animation turns to stop motion. It is in these moments that the novel truly comes to life.
These are also the most beautiful moments from the film visually. We see the Little Prince tame the Fox who I was surprised to find out is voiced by James Franco.
This film is a good one. To see the two worlds parallel one another with the aviator tying them together is satisfying. The characters are fleshed out and you are dragged through a visual wonderland. The aviator becomes a friend to both, first because the Little Prince asks for a sheep, second because he sees the Little Girl needs one. I was not a fan of the novella when I first read it and when I read it again I appreciated it more, but seeing it I truly love the message it is trying to state. The Little Girl is able to relate to the Aviator more than she has been able to with anyone else. The Little Prince teaches her to see more than what she is being taught.
While I did like the film in its entirety, I will say the last third of the film is not as strong. When she is close to losing the Aviator, the Little Girl hops on his plane in search of the Little Prince. The Aviator is dying and she wants to reassure him that the Little Prince made it back without incident to his asteroid. She ends up on an asteroid that did not exist before. Here there are no children, the adults work all day and the stars are locked up. Shocked to find the Prince is an adult and working as a janitor, the Little Girl knows she has to help the prince remember everything. She is able to restore everything to the way it should be.
It is a happy ending. Still, this part of the film is not as strong as its former parts. Its fun to see how the characters the Little Prince encountered are getting on in this world, but these are not people we care about.
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