The Little Prince

Studio: Netflix
Directed by Mark Osborne

Aug 05, 2016 By J.A. Kordosh Web Exclusive

Leaving well enough alone is a maxim so often tossed aside in the world of movie making it may as well not even exist. Reboots get rebooted and remakes get sequels before the first film has even hit theaters. Every novel, short story or blog post is scoured for its cinematic potential. It’s a bit strange it took so long for the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved book Le Petit Prince to get its cinematic due. This isn’t a straight retelling however, as director Mark Osborne (Kung-Fu Panda) and writers Irena Brignull (The Box Trolls) and Bob Persichetti (Puss in Boots) have framed a new story around the classic tale. Unfortunately, it lacks the courage and originality of the source material.

The story follows a young, unnamed girl (Mackenzie Foy) beset by an overbearing mother (Rachel McAdams) who is determined to orchestrate literally every moment of her daughter’s life. The girl is quickly brought into contact with her mother’s direct opposite: the carefree Aviator (Jeff Bridges) who met the Little Prince (Riley Osborne, the director’s son) long ago in the African desert. The Aviator entertains the girl with fanciful tales of the prince and the plot goes on from there exactly as expected, the girl getting into increasing trouble but learning valuable lessons about life along the way.

The stop-motion animation sequences, illustrating the parts directly pulled form the book, is outstanding. It evokes Saint-Exupery’s simple watercolors but also embellishes them, fills them up, and creates a stunning moving image. Yet when the film moves back to the CGI-constructed world the visuals are competent but as unexciting as the life the mother has plotted out for her daughter.

It’s surprising the film didn’t mine more material of Saint-Exupéry’s tale. Perhaps the stop-motion was too pricey or they didn’t want it to outshine their new creation. The film does recreate the Little Prince’s iconic visits to the tiny planets but they are so short you get very little of the humor of the original. It’s a shame not to see the Lamplighter in his absurd routine and rather telling that there is only the briefest of nods to the Drunkard. Instead, the uninspired premise of the girl and unnecessary big action ending replace the more adult aspects of the book, a disservice to both kids and parents.

The film is written well enough but does not reach or even aim for great heights. If it were a standalone story of a girl pulled between an overbearing parent and a happy-go-lucky stranger it would do just fine at the box office, be placed in the pile of non-Pixar animation and eventually forgotten. It can’t help but be compared to the daring, challenging original, however. Children deserve great cinema just as much as they deserve great literature. In Osborne’s film they get a glimpse of that cinema but nothing more.

Reviews