This is a film of tremendous beauty, the raw organic animation is captivating and hard to come by in modern children?s films.
The French title for the film is the "Prophecy of the Frogs" - and the amphibians figure prominently in the beginning of the picture. (Think about it - frogs are disappearing from our natural
environments, so they are indirectly giving us a very real warning of a global weather disaster.) In this cartoon, the frogs tell a boy and girl of their scientific findings: the world will be flooded for 40 days and 40 nights. Sound familiar?
Yes, the family is saved but, as it happens, they are the temporary custodians of a zoo - so all the animals join them in the ark. Problems, problems, problems. Although the Noah character - Ferdinand - brings tons of potatoes into the ark, the carnivores hungrily eye the chickens and the pigs and the other animals as food. Potatoes simply will not do. Ferdinand's message of peace is that all must learn to live together. He tells the animals that violence means the end for all life. But not all the animals see it that way...there are some truly frightening images.
I liked this version of Noah, the film has moments of tremendous visual beauty. Another plus is that Ferdinand carries a guitar and sings beautiful, even moving folk songs to all the animals.
December 2, 2008
