Azur und Asmar

I highly appreciate Michel Ocelot for his patient effort to create an alternative to the dominant commercial trends in animated production, and I have derived two five-star ratings from previous films of his. But this, simply put, did not succeed. In fact, I even consider it a grand disaster. I have a feeling that the reviewers did not ask for the opinions of their children and instead reviewed it based on what they assumed was expected from them. In the film, one can only appreciate the unconventional artistic style, whereas the screenplay is unfinished, the world is underdeveloped and illogical, and the characters lack charisma and are unfinished. You want to cheer for the protagonists, but instead, you encounter painful shortcuts and pervasive naivety. I have nothing against the effort to bring different cultures closer together, but the way Ocelot does it in this case is superficial and hastily done. Overall impression: 25%. (02.01.2017)