Movie Review: Kirikou and the Sorceress (2000)

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kirikou1 As a fan of independent films and art films, we rented Kirikou and the Sorceress which is an animation about an African folktale done by a french director (Michel Ocelot). I watched the English version of the film without subtitles and my whole family watched the film including my five and two year old sons.

The film has a wonderfully unique story and moral, and is truly ethnic in nature. The animation is of course not spectacular and somewhat choppy, but very artistic and not unappealing. The dialog is a bit lacking which I think is from the English voice over work, but it isn’t as bad as some Japanese Anime films I have seen.

The story is about an unborn child telling his mother he is ready to come into the world, the very small baby is born with the ability to talk, walk (run in fact, and very quickly) and learns right away that there are no men left in his village. They were all eaten by a sorceress named Karaba.

The whole story is about how baby Kirikou outwits the sorceress and gradually gains the respect and trust of the village, and the unique story and scenes on how he thwarts the various tricks and traps the sorcerer sets for the villagers is quite interesting. My children both enjoyed the film very much, as did my wife and I.

The animation isn’t shy about nudity and truly shows all women of the village topless, and the children completely clothless, personally there is nothing offensive about this, it is done traditionally and is a real portrayal of the culture, but to those who might be taken aback by this, consider it fair warning.

In Summary, this is an incredibly unique and artistic film with an original story and brings culture to any viewer who watches it and is unfamiliar with African culture

Kirikou and the Sorceress (2000) gets a 3/5 rating.

 

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