Friends who like to watch animated movies are estimated to have seen the feature-length animations produced by Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and so on.
In recent years, while going downhill, the surprise has produced works such as "Dream Quest", "Crazy Animal City", "Crazy Primitive Man" and other works with good plots, pictures and word of mouth, but the little friends have grown up listening to these well-known names, deeply experiencing hollywood story routines, and the taste is getting more and more stubborn.
If you've seen enough of Hollywood's main theme stories, the seven Niche European animated films I recommend may open the door to a new world for you.
Monsters in Paris 【France】【2011】
Synopsis: In Paris in 1910, two delivery men inadvertently overturned chemical reagents, causing a flea to grow in size rapidly, causing great chaos in Parisian society. The "humanoid" flea meets bar singer Lucy in the alley, and Lucy is impressed by his kindness and helplessness, accepts him and discovers his amazing talent for singing. On the other hand, the greedy police chief wants to destroy the "monster" and establish his own prestige. So there was a fight between the two.
Brief comment: Whether it is fashion taste or film and television works, France always carries its own unusually unique temperament, which is also vividly reflected in French animation films. The beautiful picture, the delicate emotion, the eloquent way of telling, every detail of the animation seems to be stamped with the mark of "France". This film is more like a fable, like "Ratatouille", telling us that "heroes do not ask for provenance", and those individuals that you disdain or even despise may have talents that you cannot match, and people cannot be disguised. The monologue of the flea in the alley because of loneliness and inferiority makes people cry.
Recommended index: 4.5 stars
The Secret of the Book of Kells 【Ireland/France/Belgium】【2009】
Synopsis: A monastery in Ireland kept its walls high to resist the Viking invasion, and the archbishop forbade everyone to cross them. One day, the famous scribe Itami came to take refuge here, and his painstakingly drawn religious scripture, the Book of Kells, was forced to be suspended because of the foreign invasion, and the young monk Brandon of the monastery, in order to help him fulfill his wish, defied the ban and walked out of the robbery and came to the outside world.
Brief review: "The Secret of the Book of Kells" is the first work I saw to see Tomm Moore, and the style of painting is unforgettable at first sight. The boy who grew up behind the city walls was imprisoned by both thought and behavior, but childlike nature made him curious about the "dangerous" world outside. Guided by a prophet who had come from afar, he stepped out of the protective wall and broke the wall of inner rules. The story tells people that truth should not be bound, and they need the spread of wise people to let more people out of the darkness of life.
Recommended Index: 5 stars
Painting Country 【France】【2011】
Synopsis: In an unfinished painting, people engage in class discrimination. People are classified as third class, and the finished figures are colorful, they are high above, they become the highest rulers and nobles of the kingdom, squeezing and squeezing the "unfinished people" and "draft people" at every turn. But because of an impermissible cross-class love, the "fully painted" teenager Rameau, the "uncollected" girl Lola and the most discriminated "draftsman" Brum embarked on a long adventure to find a painter.
Brief comment: A very, very meaningful and creative French animation, I feel that the screenwriter can especially imagine and especially imagine. This adventure road is very long, the four protagonists have gone through various screenplay settings of the whimsical level, only to come out of this unfinished painting, see the back of the painter, although the plot progress is not hurried, but let people look very comfortable, can not stop.
The Prince and the Princess / The Story of the Night【France】【2000/2011】
Synopsis: At night, an old man, a boy and a girl get together to tell a "pillow story", and the three of them are responsible for writing stories, artwork and costume design, telling a story of love, adventure and conspiracy.
Brief comment: The magical silhouette animation series, "The Story Under the Night" is the sequel of "The Prince and the Princess" after 11 years, which inherits the essence of the first part in terms of story excitement and picture, and the quality is maintained properly. The two parts are made up of 6 short stories (12 in total), spanning from the Middle Ages to the 3,000 years AD, and the stories are folk anecdotes, from ancient Egypt to ancient Japan, all kinds of things you can think of and can't think of are in this animated movie.
Guardian of the Bright Moon 【France】【2017】
Synopsis: In the world where the male protagonist Muon lives, the sun and the moon have guardians for generations, and when the guardians change, he is inexplicably selected to become the guardian of the bright moon. But his waste wood man set up led him to do nothing, and the first day of his duties led to the theft of the sun, the disappearance of the moon, and the chaos of the world. In order to make up for his mistakes, he worked hard to find out the culprit behind the sun guardians and restore world order.
Brief comment: A fantasy animation with a strong imagination, the alternating movement of the sun and the moon is vividly reflected in the way the giant beast runs in the world, which is a bit of the feeling of the mythical beast in Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke". The film exudes a unique temperament at the beginning, so that you have to admire the screenwriter's brain hole, and the ability to perfectly present the brain hole, how to exaggerate.
Cats in Paris 【France】【2010】
Synopsis: Zoe's parents are policemen, his father is killed by Victor, the biggest villain in the city, and his mother ignores her daughter Zoe by working around the clock to catch Victor. Zoe has a cat, Catino, who is her little well-behaved cat during the day and sneaks out at night with her thief friend Nick through the night Paris. One day Zoe discovers Tino's anomaly, tracks him down to meet Nick, and gets involved in the crimes of Victor's gang.
Brief comment: Although the animation is full of descriptions of Zoe's tragic family, it is warmed by the existence of this magical cat that sees the day and night cycle in Paris, and because the inadvertent intervention of the thief Nick makes people see the dawn of justice and hope. The cat becomes a bridge between these two lonely individuals, not involving love, but letting people who are accustomed to seeing paris in the dark feel that Paris under the sun is the heart's desire.
Recommended index: 4 stars
Song of the Sea【Ireland/Denmark/Belgium/Luxembourg/France】【2014】
Synopsis: The young boy Ben's family originally lived on a picturesque island, but his mother died after the birth of his sister Saoirse. Sister Saoirse found her mother's Betty when she was 6 years old and nearly drowned in the sea. Grandma brought the siblings to live in the city, but because they were not used to the city, they hoped to return to their hometown with the help of the song of Saoirse's "seal elf" as they wandered the streets.
Introduction: At the beginning of the chapter, I feel the painting style of "The Secret of the Book of Kells" coming at you, which is very attractive. "Seal spirits" are mythical creatures in Irish, Scottish and Faroe Island folklore, it is said that they live in the sea in the form of seals, after taking off the seal skin, they can turn into human form, but they must return to the ocean soon to survive on land, which is the basis of the story of the film, and the tragic reason why the parents of the brothers and sisters did not fight. The film mainly portrays family affection, father and child, mother and child, and brother and sister love.