Angelo in the mysterious forest: zany and endearing [critique]

By bringing his own comic book to the big screen, the co-director of Persepolis creates a Ghibli in the heart of the French countryside.

In 2016, children who were keen on reading discovered the little face ofAngeloturning the pages of the comic book In the dark and mysterious forest. Eight years later, these same kids who have become teenagers will finally find it: its author Winshluss – none other than Vincent Paronnaud, co-author and co-director with Marjane Satrapi of Persepolis And Chicken with plums – decided to offer him (in duo with Alexis Ducord) a second life by adapting his crazy adventures for the screen.

However, Angelo's daily life is very mundane: he spends his days dreaming of being a muscular explorer like Rambo, but is only a squinty 10-year-old boy who learns that his grandmother, who spoils him with candy, is dying. of life. Except that nothing, on the trip to go to his bedside, will go as planned: his parents forget him at a remote highway rest area and Angelo, lost in the middle of the woods, falls down the famous rabbit hole. Here he is propelled into a slightly wacky magical kingdom…

Nothing very original in the small world of animated cinema (children lost in distant lands, there are lots of them) except that the creatures he encounters on his path prove to be particularly endearing. Flying squirrel, army of ants, an ogre real estate agent, a TV presenter frog, whooping mushrooms… Angelo never gets bored, neither do we, and neither does his creator who has fun exploring animation styles. A funny initiatory journey, whose creativity will charm young and old.

Of Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord. Animation Duration 1h21. Released October 23, 2024