It sure took its sweet time, but the Oscar-nominated animated film The Red Turtle has finally swam into UK cinemas.
The Red Turtle was the first feature-length film directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, who previously won an Oscar for his seminal 2001 animated short Father and Daughter. After it premiered to a standing ovation at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, The Red Turtle went on to win the Un Certain Regard Special Prize. It was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, although it lost to Zootopia.
As you will probably already be aware if you have paid any attention to the marketing, the biggest selling point of The Red Turtle is the fact that Studio Ghibli, the folks behind such classic movies as My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo, helped to develop it. Although Studio Ghibli was not the main production company, they still played a significant role in creating the breathtaking animation seen throughout the film, making it one of the first projects they have worked on since their restructuring back in 2014. As with anything they work on, their influence is clearly felt in the stunning visuals they helped to create.
Almost completely devoid of dialogue, the plot of The Red Turtle follows an unnamed man stranded on an island deep in the ocean who has a series of strange, almost supernatural encounters with a mysterious and beautiful red turtle. The film is also pretty sad, so you might wanna pack some tissues. Although it is clearly not as commercially friendly as the animated movies that Disney and Dreamworks put out there, this is still a breathtaking cinematic journey for viewers both young and old. If you have kids, you need to show them The Red Turtle instead of The Boss Baby.
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