A rose by any other name...

I'm torn about how I feel about this movie.

On one hand, there are so many ideas and so much imagination, it's breathtaking. I especially love that it's split between CG animation and stop-motion in order to differentiate between the two different stories. The scope of it all reminded me of the tall tales of Big Fish (combined with a frame story that made me think of Up). Between this, Inside Out and Anomalisa, 2015 was an amazing year for animation.

However, I can see how people wanting a straight adaptation of a classic novel would be disappointed. I guess you can think of this more of an extension to the original story with an additional framing device. In my opinion, the new narrative with the little girl being deprived of a childhood is even sadder than that of the Little Prince.

The third act is what lost me, though. The extra tangent felt unnecessary and went on far too long (felt like they tacked it on "for the kids"). They should have devoted more screen time to the rose, the fox, or the prince's journey to other worlds. It would have been more powerful if they kept the action concise to the novel's central themes.

I get that history is repeating in a sense, and the story of the aviator is coming along full circle with the girl (who is imagining a new chapter for the saga). It just feels like something is missing. All of the fox's lessons and the implications of taming the rose feel like they've been lost in translation. Or to quote the fox: "One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes." The film is essentially eye candy.

I guess the thing that sucks is that there still doesn't feel like a definitive movie version of The Little Prince, unless you count the 1974 live-action musical or the 1979 claymation short. I still recommend this new film over those ones.