An outstanding French-Belgian animation movie, with a soulful story loosely based in a West-African folk tale.
The movie tells the story of newly born, Kirikou, a special child who asks his mother to be born, and who, immediately after being born, starts to talk and run, offering a wise practical approach to life and to the fight of Karaka, the beautiful sexy sorceress who has been impoverishing his village.
This is a movie addressed to children that, nevertheless, will enchant adults because is unique, has soul, has wit, is clever and shows an African story that is respectful with African culture and philosophy of life. Even the approach to the wickedness of the sorceress is African, as Karikou tries to understand why Karaka is so wicked and evil to fix her, not to destroy her. Wining over and destroying are two different things, and this story shows it perfectly. Even the end of the movie is unexpected, in tune with this approach, so magical and alien to Western culture. Western-African magic realism and reality.
The old-style flat animation is an artistic reinterpretation of the reality, in which landscapes, dresses, hairdos, architecture, etc. directly mimic those of West Africa. That is, they are not a western modernized interpretation of them despite the movie being European. African Art strongly inspires the animation, giving the film an incredibly artistic value, but also a verisimilitude that we rare see in animation movies nowadays. Especially beautiful, actually astounding, is the drawing of the landscapes and, especially of the vegetation, drawn to the minimal detail in a naif precious style, as eye-catching as the bright earthy bold colors of the film.
The story is entertaining, full of magic, with great messages for children, but the film is engaging for both children and adults. There is a lot of humor, too. Kirikou is just adorable, a sweet know-it-all, and very naughty sometimes. The rest of the characters are realistic, a mix of the ones you could find in a small African village with their virtues and defects.
The movie being respectful and true to the African reality it depicts most women with their breasts uncovered, while Kirikou is naked, moving his bum and "willy" cutely, during the whole movie. Puritans and morons of the world thought that this was an offense -reality is never a fairytale!- and inappropriate for children, and the screening was banned in some countries, and the release of the DVD in the USA and the UK not exempt from controversy either. If you cannot explain to your child that mummy has breasts, that they produce milk, that they are a natural part of the human body, and that is natural to have them uncovered in many parts of rural Africa, I feel sorry for your child. Children should be protected from these sort of people who try to "protect" them, and not vice versa.
The English dubbing is truly delightful, as it was also supervised by Ocelot. The only problem with it is that when the characters sing, the original music gets a bit lost.
The movie tells the story of newly born, Kirikou, a special child who asks his mother to be born, and who, immediately after being born, starts to talk and run, offering a wise practical approach to life and to the fight of Karaka, the beautiful sexy sorceress who has been impoverishing his village.
This is a movie addressed to children that, nevertheless, will enchant adults because is unique, has soul, has wit, is clever and shows an African story that is respectful with African culture and philosophy of life. Even the approach to the wickedness of the sorceress is African, as Karikou tries to understand why Karaka is so wicked and evil to fix her, not to destroy her. Wining over and destroying are two different things, and this story shows it perfectly. Even the end of the movie is unexpected, in tune with this approach, so magical and alien to Western culture. Western-African magic realism and reality.
The old-style flat animation is an artistic reinterpretation of the reality, in which landscapes, dresses, hairdos, architecture, etc. directly mimic those of West Africa. That is, they are not a western modernized interpretation of them despite the movie being European. African Art strongly inspires the animation, giving the film an incredibly artistic value, but also a verisimilitude that we rare see in animation movies nowadays. Especially beautiful, actually astounding, is the drawing of the landscapes and, especially of the vegetation, drawn to the minimal detail in a naif precious style, as eye-catching as the bright earthy bold colors of the film.
The story is entertaining, full of magic, with great messages for children, but the film is engaging for both children and adults. There is a lot of humor, too. Kirikou is just adorable, a sweet know-it-all, and very naughty sometimes. The rest of the characters are realistic, a mix of the ones you could find in a small African village with their virtues and defects.
The movie being respectful and true to the African reality it depicts most women with their breasts uncovered, while Kirikou is naked, moving his bum and "willy" cutely, during the whole movie. Puritans and morons of the world thought that this was an offense -reality is never a fairytale!- and inappropriate for children, and the screening was banned in some countries, and the release of the DVD in the USA and the UK not exempt from controversy either. If you cannot explain to your child that mummy has breasts, that they produce milk, that they are a natural part of the human body, and that is natural to have them uncovered in many parts of rural Africa, I feel sorry for your child. Children should be protected from these sort of people who try to "protect" them, and not vice versa.
The English dubbing is truly delightful, as it was also supervised by Ocelot. The only problem with it is that when the characters sing, the original music gets a bit lost.