JACK AND THE CUCKOO-CLOCK HEART

 

Publicity poster for Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (© Stéphane Berla/Mathias Malzieu/Luc Besson/Duran/France 3 Cinéma/uFilm/Walking the Dog/EuropaCorp – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Time to review another Luc Besson movie (click here, here, here, here, and here for five others of his that I've previously reviewed).

On 3 November 2023, I watched the English-language version of the French computer-animated musical fantasy film Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart.

Directed by Stéphane Berla and Mathias Malzieu, co-produced by Luc Besson, and first released by Europa Corp in 2013, Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is based upon the 2007 bestselling novel La Mécanique du Cœur, written by Mathias Malzieu, the movie's co-director. He is also lead singer with the famous French rock group Dionysos, who in turn composed its music and songs, releasing them in the form of a highly successful concept album. In addition, Malzieu voiced this movie's principal character, Jack, in the original French version (in the English version, Jack is voiced by Orlando Seale).

This thoroughly enchanting but also very poignant movie tells of a boy named Jack who is born in Edinburgh on the coldest day ever recorded, and whose heart as a result is frozen solid. But thanks to a swift and skilful if decidedly surreal operation performed on him by a clever, childless lady named Madeleine (so clever that others around her consider her to be a witch, and voiced by Barbara Scaff in the English version), Jack's life is saved – by having his heart replaced with a cuckoo-clock!

However, Jack is sternly informed at an early age by Madeleine (who has willingly become his mother after his real one abandoned him following his operation) that he will only continue to survive if he never touches the hands of his cuckoo-clock heart, if he never loses his temper, and if he never falls in love. In other words, this ain't gonna be easy!

Sure enough, when Jack subsequently falls headlong for a pretty but short-sighted young woman, Miss Acacia (Samantha Barks in the English version), whose tears on that same chilling night that he was born had frozen and damaged her eyesight, his troubles soon begin with a vengeance.

The story then takes us with Jack through many adventures, most especially during his eventful sojourn at a truly phantasmagorical carnival, as he loses, finds, loses again, and finally re-finds Miss Acacia – whereupon, at long last, disregarding his life-long instructions from Madeleine, he throws away the winding key to his heart and kisses Miss Acacia.

Based upon what has gone before, the final scene's closing bittersweet event is fully expected, but also extraordinarily unexpected in the exquisite manner in which it is presented – genuinely heartbreaking in both a figurative and a literal sense.

Throughout this movie, its style of animation is an absolute feast for the eyes, especially as it is so fundamentally different from the far more photo-realistic  style adopted by so many Hollywood animated films nowadays. Instead, it compares intimately to a glorious, moving work of art – and is all the more memorable and mesmerizing for that.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is truly fantastical in storyline, elegantly melodic musically, and spellbindingly beautiful visually, a surreal expression of touching, captivating whimsy given life and wings – the kind of evocative, compelling animated movie that imho the likes of Disney and co with their rampant, ridiculous wokeism can only dream about creating nowadays, more's the pity. And I speak as a fervent, life-long Disney fan.

If you'd like the cuckoo-clock inside your own heart thoroughly charmed, captured, and captivated by this extraordinarily strange yet totally bewitching movie – after all, where else would you encounter the likes of a bespectacled cat with metallic whiskers, a two-headed lady with wings (voiced, incidentally, by Jessie Buckley), and a man with a xylophone spine? – be sure to click here to watch an official trailer on YouTube for Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

MUNE: GUARDIAN OF THE MOON

 

Publicity poster for Mune: Guardian of the Moon © Alexandre Heboyan/Benoît Philippon/On Animation Studios/Onyx Films/Kinology/Orange Studio/Paramount Pictures/GKIDS/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch on 2 May 2022 was the thoroughly delightful French 3D/2D computer-animated fantasy film Mune: Guardian of the Moon (=Mune, le Gardien de a  Lune).

Directed by Alexandre Heboyan and Benoît Philippon (with Philippon also providing the original idea that he and Jérôme Fansten then developed into a dialogue-containing movie format), it was originally released in France in 2015 by Paramount Pictures. In 2017, it was then released in the States by GKIDS (and by Universal Pictures internationally), with an English-dubbed cast that includes Rob Lowe and Christian Slater.

Mune: Guardian of the Moon  tells the captivating story of a small planet far away in which the sun has its own guardian, and so too does the moon. On the day when the two old guardians are ceremonially replaced by two new ones, the moon side of the planet's purest creature, a kind of lunar ewe, does not choose the expected humanoid figure, Leeyoon (voiced by Slater), to be the new moon guardian but instead selects a small, inexperienced, blue rodent-like entity named Mune (Joshua J. Ballard).

Unfortunately, however, Mune's inevitable inexperience and timidity cause all manner of disasters at the beginning of his reign, much to the exasperation of Sohone (voiced by Lowe), the new super-confident sun guardian. But soon they face even worse issues when an embittered former sun guardian, Necross (Davey Grant), now inhabiting the Underworld and volcanic in form, steals the sun and plans to destroy it.

Much to their initial mutual disgust, Sohone and Mune, together with a candlewax girl named Glim (Nicole Provost) who is very knowledgeable about the ancient laws, find themselves working together to rescue the sun, defeat Necross, and fix the earlier damage caused to the moon by Mune.

The story itself thereby follows the tried and trusted path of learning to work together, respect one another's talents and differences, become friends etc. But what makes this magical movie stand out so emphatically from such all-too-familiar film fare are its highly imaginative, creative visuals (including the sun and moon being towed through the sky by a pair of gigantic creatures plodding across their respective halves of the planet), but especially the imagery of the planet's lunar half, whose fauna is truly surreal yet also exquisitely designed. I've seen reviews of this film that have likened it to a youngster's version of Avatar, and I understand why after watching it.

Equally, however, as I can personally verify, there is much to enjoy in this movie for adults too, particularly its strange luminous beauty and haunting ethereal music. Mune: Guardian of the Moon is an absolute delight – I loved it!

If you'd like to acquaint yourself with the charismatic dream-like world of Mune and Sohone, be sure to click here in order to view an official Mune: Guardian of the Moon trailer on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.