The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince in French) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is one of my most favorite children’s books of all time. I love it
for its charming narrative that effortlessly incites the
reader to reflect on life. Though it’s a children’s book, I was already in my senior year in high school when I first read it. Our English teacher then was very
enthusiastic about this book, and she transferred her fondness for it towards
my batchmates and me. Thus, up until
now, The Little Prince has a special
place in my high school batch’s collective heart.
That’s why I’m extremely
disappointed of this animated film adaptation.
By itself, The Little Prince
is wholesome, entertaining, and heartwarming – it’s a good movie. Those who haven’t read the book will easily
like the movie. But for someone like me
who did, the movie is much lacking in comparison to the book. I’m not expecting it to be as rich as the
book, but I never thought it’s going to be this subdued. It fails to express the story’s rich
philosophical overtones emphatically.
I think the movie felt diluted because
of the major plot revisions done. Instead
of directly adapting the storyline of the book, the movie’s plot centers on an
unnamed little girl (simply credited as “The Little Girl”) who’s in a rigorous
study schedule set by her mother so that she can pass the entrance exam of a prestigious academy. The Little
Girl becomes friends with their next door neighbor – an old, eccentric man who
happens to be “The Aviator”, the narrator-character of The Little Prince book – and he tells her the story of “The Little
Prince” – basically, an abridged version of the plot of the book.
But, oh boy, the movie’s story
doesn’t end there. That’s only the first
half of the movie. I won’t spoil the events of the second half here, but it involves The Little Girl looking for The Little
Prince, who is now an amnesiac adult working as a janitor.
With the movie shifting back and
forth between what was happening in the “real world” of The Little Girl and in “The
Little Prince” narrative, no momentum can be built from these interruptions. The appeal and rich metaphors of the original
story are lost. My most favorite quote
from the book ("You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed")
didn’t even make it on the film, but at least the book’s most popular quotable
quote (“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential
is invisible to the eye”) did.
Now, I think I understand why the
makers of this movie felt The Little Girl and the other additions are required in
this adaptation. Maybe The Little Prince story can’t fit on a
feature length movie, that’s why there was the need to pad it up. Or maybe they thought that the message of The Little Prince would go over the
heads of its target audience, so there was a need to clearly illustrate its “real
life” applications via the character arc of The Little Girl. But regardless of the intention, I still
would have preferred an exact and complete adaptation of the book.
The animation is beautiful. I especially liked the delightful stop-motion
style whenever the story shifts to “The Little Prince” narrative (I would have loved it more if the entire movie is animated that way). But those scenes are few and short.
Again, by itself, The Little Prince is a genuinely good movie. But it’s not a good movie adaptation of The Little Prince.
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