One of the most buzzed titles of last year’s festival circuit was “Flow,” which would go on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature film. Given the relatively shallow offerings from the major studios this year (sorry “Elio” fans), it seems very possible that this year’s winner could also come from the fest circuit—either that or the phenomenon that is “KPop Demon Hunters”. It honestly could be one of the three international productions in this dispatch, all with their own notable qualities, although I would argue one works notably better than the others.
The highest profile of the bunch probably belongs to Mamoru Hosoda’s “Scarlet,” the latest from the beloved director of “Belle,” “Wolf Children,” “Summer Wars,” and many more. His 2018 film “Mirai” was a surprising Oscar nominee, and his latest is another lavish production, itself a part of a bizarre trend this year in that William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was reflected in three productions: a modern adaptation starring Riz Ahmed, Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet,” and this gender-swapped fantasy version of the tale. Hosoda kind of loses his way in a dragging mid-section after a vibrant opening act, but he eventually gets to some of the strongest imagery of his career in what becomes a study of forgiveness vs. vengeance.
The set-up is familiar to the source: A child’s father is murdered by her uncle Claudius. As anyone who saw what Hosoda did to a legend with “Belle” might expect, the artist takes a sharp turn after that set-up. What if Claudius got the upper hand and poisoned Hamlet/Scarlet before he could meet his own fate?
Scarlet ends up in a sort of purgatory, racing against time to find her way back to Claudius as she gets her vengeance on the men who held the sword that killed her father. In this afterlife, she meets a medic named Hijiri, someone who appears to have met Scarlet across time and space after a stabbing in the streets of Japan in modern day. Hijiri and Scarlet do a lot of talking about where they are, what they need to do, and what they’re feeling, and the gray landscape of Hosoda’s vision makes the dull, on-the-nose dialogue a bit grating.
However, “Scarlet” gets someplace mesmerizing when its heroine finally reaches her goal and starts to question what it’s all worth and what she really wants. There’s one image in particular as Claudius begs for the glory that he doesn’t deserve that’s among the animator’s best. Even if “Scarlet” ends up feeling like minor Hosoda, it’s still going to be major for his loyal fans.
Ugo Bienvenu may be a French animator, but he clearly draws inspiration from people like Hosoda, and, even more so, the artisans of Studio Ghibli. Bienvenu’s “Arco” premiered at Cannes to strong buzz and has now been given an English dub that includes voice work by Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Andy Samberg, Flea, and more. It blatantly cribs from the playbook of Hayao Miyazaki in its blend of fantasy, sci-fi, and the issues of a dying planet, but I found it captivating, a reminder that even if Master Miyazaki is near the end of his career, his influence will ripple through the form for generations.
Arco is a boy who comes from a future so far away that time travel has been developed, using rainbows to travel back hundreds of years (a very early Ghibli concept if I’ve ever heard one). In an early scene, he expresses jealousy that his parents get to see what dinosaurs actually looked like—he’s only 10 and you have to be 12 to ride the rainbow—and so he decides to take a journey on his own, landing in 2075, where Bienvenu’s real vision of the future unfolds. In a world that looks a little more like our own, three figures try to chase down Arco, while he befriends a lonely girl whose parents appear only as holograms as she’s cared for more by the family robot.
When filmmakers attempt to replicate Ghibli, they often come off leaden and overwritten—“Mononoke” made too many think that Hayao never had a sense of humor—so it’s nice to see a filmmaker who values whimsy as much as message. “Arco” is a family adventure film, a story of two kids who are there for each other in a way that the grown-ups around them never were. It’s a bit thin on plot, but, like “Scarlet,” it lands in a moving place, a reminder of what really matters now, then, and many years into the future: Our connections to each other and the planet.
Finally, there’s the sweet “Little Amélie or The Character of Rain,” based on the novel by Amélie Nothomb about a three-year-old who basically develops the language and perspective of someone much older. Apparently based on a Japanese belief that children are like gods at this age, it’s a dizzying blend of cultures and mythology. When you’re three, you think you’re the center of the universe. What if you are?
The cross-culture perspective of an eloquent Belgian girl living in Japan is the most interesting thing about this poetic journey. Even the title references this blend with the Japanese character for Amélie also meaning rain. Again, Miyazaki’s child protagonists, along with more messages about our connection to the planet, feel like inspirations, but this one looks more like French painters than the Ghibli aesthetic.
The visuals amplify the themes of wonder at the natural world around Amélie in a way that’s at first captivating but gets a bit repetitive as Nothomb’s film feels slighter than the other two in this dispatch. “Little Amélie” is undeniably sweet in a way that makes it hard to dislike, but it’s also a reminder that the manner in which Miyazaki gives children agency in a way that feels true can be hard to replicate.
