The Little Prince, the animated retelling of the story of the same name… that name being, The Little Prince, is now streaming on Netflix because, for some reason, Paramount didn’t have faith enough to release this movie into theaters which is… weird because it’s of obvious quality. Micheal Bay’s Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had the studio’s confidence, but not this? I mean, it’s not amazing… but it’s quality!
In, The Little Prince, we meet a little girl named A Little Girl (I know) who’s mother, named The Mother, is controlling and always working. Basically, this is one of those, “Hey, you’re whole life is getting decided for you at an early age so you don’t get to have a childhood!” movies.
I know what you’re thinking… Where’s the Little Prince? I’m getting to that.
She meets and befriends the elderly aviator who lives next door who is named — take a guess — The Aviator who tells her the story of The Little Prince and his journey amongst the stars.
I… actually did not care for the new contemporary bits of the story. Sure, the actual scenes with the actual The Little Prince are priceless both in their style and their ethereal storytelling. I loved every second of them.
The contemporary bits, however, were awkward and felt like they belonged in a completely different movie. Sure, I understand the theme of faith and belief and, if the movie had left it at that, I would be far more accepting, but the third act of this movie is so randomly ridiculous and tacked on that it almost seems like you’re watching two movies smooshed together with a bad movie playing as a double feature.
Unfortunately, this reimagining of The Little Prince plays about thirty minutes too long. The ending adventure is just awful and really mires down the movie in a very unfortunate way.
That being said, The Little Prince is a beauty in many other ways. While I didn’t care for the contemporary spin, there was refreshing honesty in many of the scenes that dealt with aging, death, and faith (Is THAT why Paramount didn’t want to release this? As I said before, the scenes that tell the story of The Little Prince are gorgeous and they alone make me recommend this movie.
Jason Gaston 