The Little Prince (2015 film)

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The Little Prince
File:The Little Prince (2015 film) poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mark Osborne
Produced by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Dimitri Rassam
  • Paul Rassam
  • Aton Soumache
  • Alexis Vonarb
Screenplay by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Irena Brignull
  • Bob Persichetti
Story by Mark Osborne
Bob Persichetti
Based on The Little Prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Cinematography <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Adel Abada
  • Kris Kapp
Edited by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Carole Kravetz Aykanian
  • Matt Landon
Production
company
<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Distributed by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Release dates
 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • 22 May 2015 (2015-05-22) (Cannes)[1]
  • 29 July 2015 (2015-07-29) (France)[2]
Running time
 108 minutes[3]
Country France
Language English[4][5]
Budget $77.5 million[6]
Box office $97.5 million[7]

The Little Prince is a 2015 English-language French 3D stop motion and computer animated adventure fantasy drama film directed by Kung Fu Panda co-director Mark Osborne. Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti wrote the script based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. As the first animated feature film adaptation of The Little Prince,[8] the film uses stop motion animation for the novel's story and computer animation for an additional frame narrative. The film stars the voices of Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Bud Cort, Marion Cotillard, Benicio del Toro, James Franco, Ricky Gervais, Paul Giamatti, Riley Osborne (Mark Osborne's son) as the title character, Albert Brooks and Mackenzie Foy. The film is not a straight adaptation of Saint-Exupéry's novel. Rather, elements from the novel are woven into an original narrative about an unnamed young girl (Foy) who befriends the story's now elderly aviator narrator (Bridges) as she deals with her overbearing mother (McAdams).

The film premiered on May 22, 2015 at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in an out-of-competition screening,[1] followed by a wide theatrical release in France on July 29, 2015 by Paramount Pictures.[2] The U.S. theatrical release was scheduled a release date for March 18, 2016 in RealD 3D, but was later dropped by its distributor without explanation, later Netflix took over the U.S. distribution rights.[9][10] The film has earned $97.5 million on a $77.5 million budget, becoming the most successful French animated film abroad of all time.[11] The film won the Best Animated Feature Film at the César Awards[12] in 2016.

Plot

The mother of a prodigious young girl wants her daughter to enroll in the prestigious Werth Academy. To ensure her daughter will pass the entrance exam, the mother imposes on her a rigorous study schedule over the course of the summer that leaves little room for leisure. The girl becomes distracted by her next-door neighbor, an elderly, retired aviator who shares with her the story of a young boy from a distant asteroid, the "little prince", whom he supposedly encountered in a desert after crashing his plane. As the two play together without the mother's knowledge, the aviator tells the girl that he must "leave" soon.

After the aviator almost gets into a car accident with the girl in his car, her mother learns of their friendship and forbids the girl from distracting herself from her studies again. The girl secretly visits the aviator to finish his story, which ends with the prince sacrificing himself to a venomous snake bite to reunite with his beloved rose. The aviator expresses his belief that the prince safely made it back to his planet, but the girl is upset by the story's ambiguous and depressing ending and angrily regrets meeting the aviator.

Towards the end of the summer, the aviator takes ill and is hospitalized. The girl, wanting to make amends with him, runs out into the night to find the prince. She flies the aviator's plane to an asteroid populated exclusively by adults who joylessly work for the star-hoarding businessman from the aviator's story. There she finds the prince, now an adult janitor named "Mr. Prince", who has forgotten his past and fears disappointing the businessman. The prince takes the girl to an academy to be reconditioned as a submissive, workaholic adult. Suddenly recalling his past, the prince rescues the girl and helps her recover her plane to escape. While doing so, the girl and prince confront the businessman and release all of his hoarded stars back into the sky where they belong.

The girl takes the prince to his home asteroid, which is now infested with baobab trees. The prince's rose is dead, but he and the girl see an image of the rose in the rising sun. The sight transforms the prince into a young boy again, and the girl returns to Earth with the aid of a flock of birds. The next morning, the girl and her mother visit the aviator in the hospital, where she presents the aviator with a novel of his completed story. The girl then begins her semester at Werth Academy as she develops a better relationship with her mother. As the girl and her mother gaze upon the stars one night, the laughter of the aviator and the little prince is heard.

Cast

Production

Development

On 14 October 2010, Kung Fu Panda co-director Mark Osborne was hired and set to direct The Little Prince based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti wrote the script for the film based on a story conceived by Mark Osborne.[15] Aton Soumache, Paul Rassam, Alexis Vonarb and Dimitri Rassam produced the film with the budget of $77.5 million for release in 2015.[6][8] On 10 December 2014, it was announced that Hans Zimmer would compose the music for the film.[16] The final score was co-composed by Zimmer and Richard Harvey.[17]

The film features a framing device not present in the novel, with a schoolgirl discovering The Little Prince through a reclusive elderly neighbor. Mark Osborne made the film's hero a little girl after research from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media revealed the gender disparity among characters in animated films. She represents "the spirit of adulthood," according to Osborne.[18] "In animation, it always had to be boy-centric. Right now there seems to be a changing of the tide but these things don't happen overnight. These movies take years to make, so back when I was first pushing to make the little girl the main character, it was seen as quite revolutionary", Osborne told in April 2015.[19]

The film uses computer animation for the girl's world and stop-motion animation for the world of The Little Prince as she imagines it.[20] Development and storyboarding of the film was completed in Paris. The team then moved to Montreal for the final phases of animation, lighting, color and production in order to maximize the tax benefits offered to a French-Canadian project,[15] a co-venture between Onyx Entertainment in Paris and Mikros Image Canada in Montreal.[15][21][22][23] One of the film's associate producers is Brice Garnier from Canada's Kaibou Production.[21][24][25] Kaibou service rendered Line production and service production (3D animation and Stop Motion). Studio partners were Studio Mikros Image Canada, Toutenkartoon Canada and Technicolor (picture and sound post-production). Kaibou also provided financing through tax credits, gap financing and local taxes.[24]

Osborne was pitching the film to actors, artists, and distributors all over the world using what he called a "magic suitcase" full of hand-made visual aids specifically create to communicate the tone and passion for the project. Model maker Joe Schmidt (the modeler of Coraline) created this suitcase, which held the art book, and told the story of the movie visually.[15] Schmidt had created a snapshot of Osborne's vision for the film. A constellation of tiny planets and stars lighted up on one side, a giant art book of illustrations filled the other. From somewhere deep inside the case, Osborne pulled out two large white circles that held slides that when placed up to each eye displayed 3-D images of stop-motion puppets. Then Osborne started flipping switches. In no time, a one-way mirror slid away to reveal a hidden chamber holding a collection of yellowed pages below. It was a mock-up of Saint-Exupéry's original manuscript, a key plot point in Osborne's film.[18] In four years, Osborne pitched the movie close to 400 times.[15]

Casting

On 5 June 2013, it was announced that James Franco, Marion Cotillard, Mackenzie Foy, Benicio del Toro, Paul Giamatti, Rachel McAdams and Jeff Bridges joined the film.[26] Albert Brooks joined the cast on 12 September to voice The Businessman, a villain.[27]

Thanks to Osborne’s emotionally engaging pitch and the global popularity of Saint-Exupéry's book, a group of A-list actors were able to be recruited to lend their voices to the film’s characters. As Osborne explained, “It began with Jeff Bridges. He was our first and only choice to play the Aviator, so after a great deal of time trying to get to him, I finally got the chance to go to his home in Santa Barbara to talk to him directly. He was blown away by the pitch, and it really put us on the road to assembling the perfect cast.” As Bridges recalls, he was instantly drawn to the role of the Aviator. “Mark gave me this incredible pitch, brought this suitcase with him which showed me what the movie was going to be about. We shared the same concern, which was if you simply just move around these iconic characters like the book, it might not do justice to the work. He had this great other story, which treated the book as almost another character in the movie. It’s a great way to pay tribute to this classic book, so I was excited and thrilled to be part of it.”[15]

In the early stages of production, Mark Osborne’s daughter Maddie and his son Riley, helped doing the temporary scratch voices for the roles of the Little Girl and the Little Prince. His daughter got older and her voice began to change, so she had to be replaced by the 12-year-old Mackenzie Foy. Osborne's son Riley was kept as the voice of The Little Prince because they never found anyone who did a better job than him. "He was 11 at the time, and was very natural in the part so we kept him as the Prince!", Osborne told.[15]

To voice the complex role of the Little Girl’s Mother, the filmmakers approached Rachel McAdams. The Little Prince marks the first time McAdams has lent her voice to an animated project. “I was so excited to be part of this movie, and I loved Kung Fu Panda, so I knew our director Mark (Osborne) was going to do a wonderful job with the adaptation. I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to animation.” McAdams says it was important for her to connect with the material. “I play the Little Girl's Mother, who is a working single mom. She has this massive, intricate life plan for her daughter and wants her to follow the rules to a tee. The Mother is a little high-strung, but she means well. She and her daughter are a real team until the Little Girl drifts away.” [15]

Release

The film was chosen in 'Official Selection' for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival in May 22, 2015.[28] Wild Bunch is overseeing international film sales. Paramount Pictures released the film in France on July 29, 2015, and had intended to handle distribution in the United States.[22] The film was also released in other territories by Entertainment One in Canada,[29] and The Weinstein Company in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.[30] Warner Bros. assumed distribution in Austria, Germany and Japan.[22]

The Little Prince made its U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara Film Festival on February 3, 2016. It was the first animated movie to open the Santa Barbara Film Festival since the festival started in 1985.[31] The film was to be released in the United States on March 18, 2016 in RealD 3D.[9] However, on March 11, a week away from its release, Paramount dropped the planned release for the region; no immediate reasons for this was given.[32] Netflix later acquired the film.[33] It is scheduled to be released on August 5, 2016.[34]

Marketing

On 11 September 2014, Warner Bros. Japan released a teaser from the film.[35] The first trailer in French[36] was released by Paramount Pictures on December 8, 2014.[37] The first trailer in English was released on December 12, 2014.[38] The first official English trailer and the first poster[39] for the film were released on April 20, 2015.[40] eOne Canada released a new trailer in November 13, 2015.[41] The first full U.S. trailer was released by Paramount Pictures on November 25, 2015.[42]

Reception

Box office

As of September 20, 2015, it has grossed $12.1 million in France[43] and, as of March 20, 2016, $88.7 million worldwide.[44] In its opening week in France, The Little Prince earned $3.3 million from 727 screens debuting at No. 2 at the French box office and its opening was 12% ahead of Disney's Big Hero 6.[45] In its second weekend it grossed $1.4 million (down 41%) from 830 screens for a two weekend total of $5.5 million.[46] The film debuted at No. 2 in Brazil on August 20, behind of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, with 330 thousand tickets sold.[47] In its second weekend, it topped the box office with over 851 thousand tickets sold, making history in Brazil as the first non-American animated film to lead the box office in the country. The film kept the first place at the Brazilian box office for three consecutive weeks.[48] As of October 5, the film has grossed over R$27 million (US$7.14 million)[49] and as of October 18, it reached over 2 million admissions in Brazil.[50] The film opened in China on October 16,[51] where it grossed $10.9 million in its opening weekend ranking third behind Ant-Man and Goodbye Mr. Loser,[52][53] and has grossed a total of $20.9 million in 10 days.[54] By its third weekend, it had grossed US$24 million.[55] It was number-one on its second weekend in Japan.[56]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 94%, based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10.[57] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 71 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[58]

Accolades

Year Award Category Recipient Result
2016 César Awards[59] Best Animated Feature Film Mark Osborne Won

Soundtrack

The Little Prince (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album / Film score by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Released July 24, 2015
March 11, 2016
Recorded 2015
Genre Soundtrack album
Film score
Length 61:22
Label Because Music
WaterTower Music
Producer <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Hans Zimmer and Richard Harvey film scores chronology
Chappie
(2015)
and
Curse of the Phoenix
(2014)Chappie2015		 The Little Prince
(2015)		 Freeheld
(2015)
and
Swung
(2015)Freeheld2015
Singles from The Little Prince (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
  1. "Suis-moi"
    Released: 29 June 2015
  2. "Equation"
    Released: 2015
  3. "Le Tour de France en Diligence"
    Released: 2015
  4. "Suis-moi (Reprise)"
    Released: 2015

The Little Prince (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the film's soundtrack album and score made by Hans Zimmer, Camille and Richard Harvey and it was released on CD on July 24, 2015 and March 11, 2016 by Because Music and WaterTower Music.

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "Suis-moi" (Written, produced and performed by Hans Zimmer and Richard Harvey featuring Camille) 3:26
2. "Equation" (Written, produced and performed by Hans Zimmer and Richard Harvey featuring Camille) 2:03
3. "Le Tour de France en Diligence" (Written, produced and performed by Hans Zimmer and Richard Harvey featuring Camille) 1:16
4. "Suis-moi (Reprise)" (Written, produced and performed by Hans Zimmer and Richard Harvey featuring Camille) 3:09
5. "Preparation"   2:09
6. "The Life Plan"   1:12
7. "Driving"   1:40
8. "The Interview"   2:15
9. "Plan B"   0:36
10. "Getting on with It"   1:43
11. "Amongst the Coins"   2:36
12. "Top Floor Please"   0:57
13. "Ascending"   3:14
14. "Draw me a Sheep"   3:39
15. "Stars"   0:26
16. "The Fox"   0:54
17. "The Journey"   2:35
18. "The Absurd Waltz"   4:07
19. "Recovery"   1:47
20. "Trapped Stars"   4:00
21. "Farewell"   1:58
22. "Escape"   3:13
23. "Finding the Rose"   4:22
24. "Growing Up"   4:17
Total length:
 61:22

References

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  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  36. ↑ http://www.firstshowing.net/2015/full-international-trailer-for-french-animated-film-the-little-prince/
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  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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