THE RED TURTLE (Michael Dudok de Wit). 80 minutes. Opens Friday (January 27). See listing. Rating: NNNN
Having enraptured audiences at Cannes and TIFF, The Red Turtle opens for its theatrical run sporting a shiny new Oscar nomination for best animated feature. But the Academy Awards are just a convenient release hook the movie itself is timeless.
Told with simplicity, elegance and no dialogue whatsoever, it’s an animated fable about loneliness and hope.
A nameless man finds himself marooned on a small island he tries to escape but is thwarted by a large red turtle. Then something inexplicable happens, and the story takes on a magic-realist aspect, opening up rich avenues of drama and resonance.
A collaboration between Dutch Oscar winner Michael Dudok de Wit (Father And Daughter) and Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli – Isao Takahata, director of Grave Of The Fireflies and The Tale Of Princess Kaguya, was a consultant on the project – The Red Turtle feels like the perfect synthesis of those sensibilities.
Dudok de Wit’s restrained storytelling serves as an ideal frame for the studio’s love of strange mythology and deep emotion. And as with most Ghibli productions, adults are likely to get more out of it than children – maybe even more than usual on this one.
