Review: Available only on Netflix, ‘The Little Prince’ is 2016’s best animated film

Posted on August 12, 2016

By MARK VIOLA

I’ve reviewed hundreds of movies over the years, and with the lone exception of “The Interview” when it finally arrived online after having its release shuttered by online threats, all of those movies have been either in theaters or available on home video.

In the case of “The Little Prince,” a wonderfully animated adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic 1943 story, the English-version of the film is currently only available on Netflix, so if you don’t have that service, you are currently out of luck, although hopefully it will get a home video release at a later date. This version, which features the voices of Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, James Franco, Albert Brooks, Benicio Del Toro, Ricky Gervais and Mackenzie Foy, made its debut last Friday.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story of “The Little Prince,” which I was going into this movie, it follows an aviator (voiced by Bridges) who crashes in the desert and happens upon a small boy called the Little Prince (director Mark Osborne’s son Riley). The boy acts strangely and ultimately tells the aviator how he once lived on Asteroid 612 and about the journey which took him from there to the desert on Earth.

Now, if you are a fan of the book, you should know going in that this is not a straight-forward adaptation. The tale of the aviator and the Little Prince is told as a story within the story by the aviator himself as an old man.

The primary protagonist of the film is a young girl (Foy), who moves into a new home with her mother (McAdams) so she can attend a prestigious school. The girl’s mother has her life planned out from the present to adulthood literally to the minute, with the goal of becoming a successful and driven adult.

The girl is on board with this plan, mostly because it’s all she’s ever known. That changes, however, when she meets her eccentric elderly neighbor, who just happens to be the aviator. As their unlikely friendship blossoms, he tells her the story of the little prince, and in many ways, the themes inherent in his story parallel her own.

Osborne and his crew delineate these two stories by presenting the girl’s story in 3D computer-generated animation, while the Little Prince’s story, which is the story of the book, is delivered through stop-motion animation using paper models and backgrounds.

The combination is surprisingly effective. The stop-motion scenes are downright beautiful, adding a fantastical veneer to the already strange story of the prince, while the 3D animation perfectly complements the conformity surrounding the little girl and awaiting her when she grows up.

Fans of the book might have preferred a more straight-forward adaptation, and I can’t really argue the point, but I enjoyed how they were able to link the two, bringing many of the book’s themes into a modern setting while still telling the original story as it was presented in the book

I really appreciated the richness of the storytelling and I think this a film that the entire family can enjoy. This has been a good year for animation, highlighted by Disney’s “Zootopia” and Pixar’s “Finding Dory,” but I will have to place “The Little Prince” at the top of my list of the best animated films of the year.

My only disappointment is that I didn’t get the chance to see this film and it’s wonderfully rendered animation on the big screen in theaters. But, if you have Netflix, don’t miss the opportunity to see it now, especially if you are a fan of animation.

The film is rated PG for mild thematic elements.

(This is a abbreviated version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

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