My Life as a Zucchini (2017)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

'My Life as a Courgette' was the last of the five 2016/7 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominees viewed by me, and that it is (to me) the weakest of the nominees and still manages to be a very good film is testament to how great the other four films ('The Red Turtle', 'Kubo', 'Moana' and the winner 'Zootropolis', so very stiff competition) were.There is not a whole lot wrong with 'My Life as a Courgette'. At just over an hour it is a little too short and it did have a story that was deserving of a longer length, and the depiction of orphanages (usually a dark and unhappy environment that people can't wait to leave) is rather rose-tinted. Otherwise, it is a beautifully done film that has much more to it than the quirky if silly title, the cute-looking characters and bright colourful visuals make out. Not classing these attributes as bad things in any way, but it is so easy hearing and seeing it advertised to get the wrong idea about 'My Life as a Courgette', thinking it will be a quirky film with children as its primary target audience, bright colours and witty humour when actually there is much to the film than that.It is a beautifully animated film certainly. It is very vibrantly bright and colourful, with parts of truly haunting atmosphere, a vividly immersive world and meticulously detailed backgrounds and overall visuals from the little things to the bigger effects. Just as good are the eye-catching character designs that are modelled smoothly and even with the oddball looks look and behave very authentically, for characters they are very unique and charmingly unusual (what other title character has blue hair and a red nose?).Furthermore, the music score is appropriately atmospheric and whimsical, while the writing has quirks and poignancy. The story could have benefited from a longer length but still charms, amuses and moves, with a surprisingly sober tone, while not being afraid to take risks and brave more difficult subjects with sensitivity and never heavy-handedness. This is including one of the boldest opening sequences in any animated film (perhaps the boldest since that for Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'). Everything is paced beautifully too.Characters are very easy to warm to and have engaging, distinct personalities. Voice acting in both the American and particularly French versions is very emotive.On the whole, beautiful film and has much more to it than one would think. 8/10 Bethany Cox

My Life as a Zucchini was nominated for Best Feature Film at the 89th Academy Awards. And for a 70 minute feature, that says a lot. This French-Swiss stop-motion animation film takes on a mature content but never fails to keep its child-like tone and to an extent, its innocence.It follows the story of Icare (but prefers to be called Zucchini), who lives with his alcoholic mother. After an accident, Zucchini has been sent to an orphanage by a policeman named Raymond. Zucchini's start at the orphanage is rough—thanks to the Simon, the bully. From there on, we are immersed into Zucchini's adventures as he learns of friendship, of family and of love.This animated film ravel with its wonderful visuals that reminds us of the days when its was toys over tablets. In a way, this serves as a nostalgic treat for teenagers. Almost every scene carries a powerful meaning. But its greatest feat is looking at the lives of these children through a different lens—they are all abandoned, damaged or broken. One has her mom deported, the other has his father jailed— these are all mature themes but nevertheless, real.But despite all that, Zucchini and his crew are all still children. They play, they dance, they sing. The film never stops to carry this child-like tone. The colorful aesthetics are impactful and an array of vibrancy spreads across the screen. It is a brave film that looks at life at an emotional depth. It's an eye-opening experience.

The way they made this film was very original, and good originality is very valuable and worth watching. I love stop-motion, in this is an excellent stop-motion, because of everything in the film impressed me. The characters are very original, even the name that the main character has is amazing. The screenplay embraces so many genuine topics, as love and the different ways it can be shown; it has humor but it also wants to make you cry and fall in love with each character. The production is incredible, amazing, out of this world; and I couldn't ask for more, it made me want to cry because of this simple but outstanding production! This motion picture is really worth watching, is very touching; and if I could only watch one movie for the rest of my life it will be this one.

When I was very young growing up in the UK, there was a children's show I watched called "The Raggy Dolls". Defective toys thrown into 'the reject's bin' of a toy factory came to life and had adventures. By depicting cast-outs and the marginalised finding solidarity and friendship the show aimed to represent and build empathy for children who, for whatever reason, didn't fit in.While watching the Oscar-nominated Swiss animation "My Life as a Courgette" I thought about "The Raggy Dolls" more than once and felt that the creators must have had similar aims here. The film tells the story of Courgette, a young boy who has been raised by an alcoholic single mum and now finds himself in an orphanage. The other children have faced an array of similar abuses and must find courage and hope from one another. A key strength of the film is the fine line it walks between depicting real darkness and maintaining a light enough tone for child viewers. There are hints that one of the children in the orphanage has been the victim of sexual abuse and writer Celine Sciamma deserves a lot of credit for portraying such a theme with the sensitivity it merits while maintaining a child-friendly rating.The film is an adaptation of a book by French author Gilles Paris which was largely intended for teenagers but here the focus seems to have been attracting an adult audience while leaving the experience suitable for the whole family. It certainly feels like the sort of film that parents will watch together with their children rather than leaving them in front of it. The design of the film is remarkable. The materials used, with clay for the character models but real cloth for their clothes, give the film a wonderful physicality and texture. Coupled with the small scale locations and cute designs such as the tiny wheels on all of the cars, the film has a toy-like feel which produces a protective, safe atmosphere to counter its dark subject matter.The characters are charmingly realised, with the children given the principle roles. Their actions are often heart-breaking. One girl, whose mother has been deported, runs to the door expectantly every time a car pulls up. The children all gaze longingly at a mother comforting her son after he has fallen from a sled. It definitely works - the film is emotionally affecting but genuinely hopeful.The film should be applauded for not tacking on a lengthy, unnecessary third act which ups the stakes and adds a conflict to be resolved - the orphanage is going to be bought by evil Mr. Grimshanks? We have to stop him children! Lots of movies would have done this to make the film more 'cinematic' but these are always the parts of the movie where the plot stops serving the characters and would have been sinfully out of place here. Having said that, the film does fall short of providing a Dardenne-esque breakthrough moment to bring our characters to a new state or realisation and the movie to even greater heights.This is the 3rd of the Oscar nominations for Best Animated Film in 2017 that I have seen, with "The Red Turtle" and "Moana" yet to be viewed. So far I think that the Academy definitely picked the worst of the bunch with "Zootropolis". At the time of writing "My Life as a Courgette" has 50x fewer ratings than Pixar's film on IMDb. This is a shame, as the Swiss film is a considerably more measured story and innovative film and deserves a wider audience.