Adventures From My Netflx Queue: L’illusionniste
Last year’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film went to Toy Story 3. In the Annual BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool, most everyone picked it for the winner and the other one for How To Train Your Dragon was most likely a fat finger vote. I think we all need to change our minds. I have just watched the forgotten choice, Sylvain Chomet’s L’illusionniste and couldn’t be more impressed with it. Toy Story 3 can’t compare to L’illusionniste.
The story tells the tale of a magician in 1959 whose fortunes are running out in Paris. He gets a billing in remote Scotland at a small pub wherein he meets a young lady. Impressed with his magical prowess, she follows him to Edinburgh, Scotland. The magician treats her like his daughter buying clothes and gifts for her while trying to keep up his illusionist trade. Yet, the era of magic as entertainment is dwindling and his ill fortune follows him so that it is impossible to make a living doing sleight of hand.
The film reminds me of the joie de vivre first 10 minutes of Pixar’s Up and the silent melancholia of the early part of Wall●E. It is mainly a silent movie as the film makes do with gestures to convey the emotions of the story. What little dialog there is and what little speeches there are end up sounding like Esperanto. Chomet’s animators make it all work though. The emotion of every scene is clearly conveyed in the hand drawn animation. The lack of words do not hinder such a sweet tale. It makes it all the more poignant. There is still a place for hand drawn animation.
In last year’s Oscar Pool, I rooted for L’illusionniste to pull off an upset. It didn’t but most likely because no one saw this movie. When you do, you’ll change your mind. Toy Story 3 will just be a slight cream puff of a movie while L’illusionniste will be a full banquet of delight.
5 of 5 stars
