Review: AZUR AND ASMAR: THE PRINCES’ QUEST/ Michel Ocelot (2006)
February 16th, 2009 by Scott Marks
Azur and Asmar: The Princes’ Quest (2006)
Written and Directed by Michel Ocelot
Running Time: 99 min.
Rating: 
Azur and Asmar is a typical “Once upon a Time…”/Arabian Nights fairy tale dressed in garish colors and eye-grabbing patterns that can only do so much to camouflage the lack of story. The busy computer generated backgrounds and rigid character movement make it feel like you’re reading a storybook on a giant computer screen.
When we first meet them, Azur and Asmar are mere babes feeding off Jénane’s breasts. Jénane, who is Asmar’s mother and Azur’s nanny, raises the boys like brothers even though one is dark-skinned and the other looks like a member of Hitler’s League of German Worker Youth. The boys are constantly scrapping and each clash ends exactly the same: Azur’s dour, aristocratic father appears from nowhere to break things up. A fistfight in a dung heap proves to be too much for the nobleman to bear. Before Azur can say goodbye to Jénane and his friend (and wash the meadow muffins from his hair), he’s strapped to a tutor and sent to the big city. Jénane and Asmar are thrown to the curb and allowed to keep just the clothes on their backs.
Some of the dialogue is obvious even for a kid’s film. How is this for an exposition inducer: Fading in from a passage of time, the first words out of the father’s mouth are, “Azur, you’re a grown man now. What will you do with your life?” Azur wants to travel across the sea to liberate the Djinn Fairy, a magical princess who was the subject of Jénane’s bedtime stories. He sets sail and winds up shipwrecked in a land where blue eyed people are thought to be demons. What’s an Aryan to do but go through life pretending he’s blind? Only after he is reunited with Jénane and Asmar does Azur once again open his eyes, and the two young men set out to find the Djinn Fairy.
The majority of the animation is surprisingly flat with very little movement in and out of the frame. Apart from holy books, mosques, mosaics and 1,500 thread count Egyptian sheets, the film borrows much of its background design from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. A couple of winged elves, reminiscent of Cinderella‘s Godmothers, are the only non-human creations in this colorful animated universe. The cut-out character movement is stiff and unconvincing. Much detail has been paid to the characters faces leaving other parts of their anatomy looking like dangling Colorform spheres. With the exception of one manic Disney-fied moppet (Princess Chamsous Sabah), there isn’t much visual wit in any of these characters. Crappoux, a street merchant who acts as Azur’s “eyes” in addition to the film’s other source of comic relief, comes off like a flaccid Phil Silvers.
After the show, I ran into a friend outside the theatre. “I’m embarrassed to admit that I fell asleep.” she confessed. “How did they come up with a bride for Azur?” Simple — the screenwriter made a wish, clapped his hands together three times and Ouila!, a late entry substitution. In the end, no one can decide who is worthiest of the Djinn Fairy’s hand, so the Elf Fairy whips up a fair-skinned beauty to pair off with Azur. For reels the film builds a fairly obvious (even for kids) parable on racial tolerance, so it’s only fitting that the couples change partners.
Not that everyone has to answer to the brilliance of Pixar, but those fellas appear to have set the bar out of reach. Nor must everything animated exist in a yuk-filled squash-and-stretch universe in order to hold my attention. Azur and Asmar goes to the opposite extreme. 80% of the compositions form a theatrical tableau. Look at the three photos and you will notice how neatly centered everything is. Nothing is allowed to stand out in front of these not-a-pixel-out-of-place backgrounds. The starchy framing and geometric ornamentation overpower the rheumatic characters making them appear even more unbendable.
Small children will be entranced by the films bright colors and simple story line, but parents had better bring a (Mason) jar of NoDoz. I was a bit surprised to see the film dubbed in English from the original French and Arabic. Even the screener they sent was of the American release. The average Joe and his charge would take one look at the poster and, English or not, make a bolt for Bolt. Only a special sort of parent would take their kid to see Azur and Asmar: the type that taught them how to read before their first day of kindergarten. They should have let it play the States as a “foreign” film.
American ReleaseTrailer for “Azur and Asmar.”
Tags: Animation, AZUR AND ASMAR, AZUR AND ASMAR THE PRINCES' QUEST, CUT-OUT ANIMATION, CUTOUT ANIMATION, FAIRY TALE, MICHEL OCELOT, STORYBOOKShare: 
Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical
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