Just a quick note on this film which I caught up on for my New Year’s resolution. It’s clearly aimed at children, and if you judge it with that in mind, it’s no doubt an excellent film. It follows Tove Jansson’s Moomin characters, particularly the hippopotamus-like creatures of that name (as well as some ancillary ones), as they travel to the French riviera from their unspecified northern land. The themes gently incorporate critiques of celebrity culture and vapid self-centredness (predictably focused around the young female Snorkmaiden), and on the overvaluation of the art market, amongst other things. The film is made in a rather quaintly old-fashioned animation style, with a voice cast erring towards the undemonstrative (at least in the English version), and moves at a less hectic pace than many modern animated films. If anything, it brings to mind (for me at least) fondly-remembered television cartoons from my childhood. There’s only the tiniest hint of darkness around the edges (focused most of all on the gleefully anarchic Little My character), meaning that it may come across as just a little too anodyne for adults, but for the most part Moomins on the Riviera is a warm and loving evocation of these characters.
CREDITS
Director Xavier Picard; Writers Leslie Stewart, Annina Enckell, Hanna Hemilä, Picard and Beata Harju (based on the Muumipeikko comic strips by Tove Jansson and Lars Jansson); Length 80 minutes.
Seen at Cineworld Chelsea, London, Monday 25 May 2015.
filmcentric 