Princes and Princesses
A recently added animated gem currently graces the new arrival shelf in FIT, Princes and Princesses, a 2000 French release by animator Michel Ocelot. In the same style as one of the first full length animated films ever made, Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed, (Germany, 1926) Princes and Princesses uses cut out black silhouette animation against saturated jewel tone backdrops to relate six stories of royalty from an array of time periods and places in the world. Although the initial idea of 70 minutes of black cutouts dancing across the screen may strike some as tedious, the movement and stylistic detail of the art direction make turning away from the film as difficult as putting down a well crafted children’s book halfway through. The vignette-style presentation of the stories, laden with delicate props ranging from magical diamonds to Egyptian figs, assists in creating an entrancing all-ages flick.