Little prince review

Talk about an emotional roller coaster. This movie starts off as expected, and a little cliche, with the intro of the young girl and her pushy mom into a highly rigid society devoid of creativity or personal expression. The muted palletes of their clothing and building styles contrast really well with the beautiful world they live in and against the perfectly subtle variations on character design the main characters have vs their contemporaries. The set up is simple but sets in motion this notion of "adultification" that children are subjected to.

In this setup, the little girl (i love that the characters have no names just like the source material) has a summer to study and get adultified before trying to get back in the academy she fainted in, sealing her fate. Of course, they end up living next to the aviator, the writer of the little prince story. Now, in my opinion, the aviator is a bit of a menace as he nearly kills the little girl in his opening scene!

So the little girl spend her entire summer, reluctant at first but with childhood mirth at the end, learning and telling about the little prince. Now, this movie takes a different approach to telling the story of the little prince. In the book, we largely follow the prince in his trials and tribulations from a recounting of his experiences by the aviator while the movie focuses more on the effect of the story on the girls life. I think this is the perfect way to tell this story in movie form. In my opinion, the little prince is about growing up but from a childs point of view and having the movie surround the little girl and her feelings on the story encapsulate that notion perfectly. It is a bit weird to see the little prince take a backseat in his own movie but thats kind of the point. His whole message was that the best things in life are often those things unseen.

Now, i did notice that some of the more "adult" elemnts were removed. The more obvious connections to the rose and the real life authors wife have been removed and the drunkard wallowing in self pity is also absent but referenced. Honestly, they would have been a bit inappropriate in conjuction with the rest of the film. I feel this retelling focused largely on the loss experienced when growing older. The loss of love (the rose), the loss of childhood joy and hope (the little prince sweeping in a factory) and death (the aviator being taken away to the hospital). To me, this movie was a method of teaching kids its okay to grow old and that loss is an unfortunate part of the whole bag. The idea though is to never forget the good, the love, and the lives that have touched you. Its a common motif but i believe this movie executed it very well.

This was just a quick review written on downtime at work. Like to hear your thoughts though dear reader(s).

Ps. Its been 5 years since i had a 22 inch hotdog in Phoenix...where does the time go?