Netflix has released a new trailer for The Little Prince, the 2015 animated feature which it recently picked up for the U.S. market.
As you may recall, Paramount Pictures was scheduled to release The Little Prince in U.S. theaters earlier this year, but decided just days before its release date to completely drop the film from its schedule. We don’t know why, but it was kind of abrupt and weird. Anyway, Netflix snapped it up and will now release the film on its U.S. streaming service on August 5th. I’ve read that there will also be a limited theatrical release but I can’t find any specifics about it, so I’ll guess we’ll find out what’s in store for that, too.
I had the chance to see the film last year while on an airplane (a somewhat appropriate place to see this story, right?). It’s a loose adaptation from the beloved book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with lots of manufactured backstory—a narrative device which I typically hate when people try to adapt a smaller book into a feature length film—along with a concurrent modern story. Director Mark Osborne and his team worked with multiple European animation houses and distributors on the film including On Entertainment, Orange Studio, LPPTV, M6 Films, and Lucky Red. Different animation styles and techniques are used throughout the film, including CG and stop-motion. I thought the film was beautiful to look at and it had a mostly satisfying (yet highly derivative) conclusion, but, again, I was discouraged about all of the backstory not included in the book along with the concurrent modern-day story that the filmmakers decided to add to make the story work for them. Definitely see it for the beautiful art and craftsmanship (even if the story is less than stellar).
Animation Fascination 