The striking new film from internationally-renowned animator Michel Ocelot (director of Kirikou and the Sorceress, Azur and Asmar: The Prince’s Quest) recently screened at the Berlin and London Film Festivals.
It’s Ocelot’s first foray into 3D, which works wonderfully well alongside his use of crisp, classic silhouette animation, creating a layered, kaleidoscopic effect that feels unusual and dramatic. The film weaves together six exotic fables which unfold in Tibet, medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African savannah, and the Land of the Dead; all enacted by a young boy and girl who meet up with an elderly technician in a dilapidated cinema at night. Creating the stories, visualising the time periods and making up the costumes, they are then – courtesy of a little bit of magic – dressed and inserted into the very fabric of the narratives themselves.
History blends with fairytale in Ocelot’s imaginative storytelling, and we are transported to lands inhabited by dragons, captive princesses, sorcerers, and enormous talking bees – each fable ending with its own ironic, dryly comic twist.
Indeed, it’s Ocelot’s sly humour that makes Tales of the Night 3D a suitable prospect for both children and adult audiences; as well as the variety of the gorgeously rendered settings, and the diverse and idiosyncratic stories, which will appeal to all.