I had no
expectations going into this film. In fact, I was going to attend a different
screening at Debussy, but Gillian and Renee convinced me to accompany them to
Courgette and I'm glad I did. It is a stop motion animation. The figures have
enormous heads in proportion to their bodies. There is a sculpture of Courgette
outside one of the hotels we've been passing by and now I know what it is. It
is sort of the in the style of Coraline. It is a story of an orphaned boy
finding his way. It has heart and the screenplay is touching. It makes lots of
appropriate vegetable jokes because the boy's nickname Courgette means
zucchini. And the ending made me cry. It is really sweet and funny and
heartwarming.
What is interesting
is that it doesn't have to be animated. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a good
stop motion film. A lot of the animations we see in the United States have
screenplays that wouldn't work in live action, whether they're talking fish or monsters
or superheroes or fantastical beings. But this is a simple story that could
have been told with real people. The director simply chose to use the medium of
animation to convey this story. What does the animation add to the story that
real people couldn't tell? Maybe it just adds to the sweetness factor though
I'm sure they could've found cute kids to empathize with.
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