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DVD Un monstre à Paris
 Run time: 90 min Rating: 6.7 Genres: Animation | Adventure | Comedy Director: Bibo Bergeron Writers: Bibo Bergeron, Stéphane Kazandjian Stars: Matthieu Chedid, Vanessa Paradis, Gad Elmaleh |
| Storyline Paris,1910. Emile, a shy movie projectionist, and Raoul, a colorful inventor, find themselves embarked on the hunt for a monster terrorizing citizens. They join forces with Lucille, the big-hearted star of the Rare Bird cabaret, an eccentric scientist and his irascible monkey to save the monster, who turns out to be an oversized but harmless flea, from the city’s ruthlessly ambitious police chief. Written by The Film Catalogue |
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| Plot Keywords: monster, paris france, belle epoque, city name in title | |
| Details: Country: France Release Date: 27 January 2012 (UK) |
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| Box Office Budget: €25,000,000 (estimated) |
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4 comments
I was browsing through IMDb when I stumbled upon the reviews of this movie. As a matter of fact, 6 months ago, I saw the Dutch dubbed version with 3 kids (one 6y, 2 10y).
I have to say, everybody enjoyed it. The 6y old even asked me to buy it on DVD. I wonder if the person who gave this a "1" even bothered to look at the movie at all…
Because I like Paris, I enjoyed the little details the French animators put in it. It really captures the Parisian atmosphere. The animation is in the same league as Megamind, Despicable Me etc. It's not as good as the Pixar/Dreamworks movies, but it was still very well done.
Some jokes worked, others didn't, but all in all I found it well worth the money.
I saw this movie yesterday. I was not expecting anything ; my boyfriend and I love cartoons, he chose it, I hat no idea what it was.
The beginning and exposition are a little slow, granted. But it is worth it, it allows you to enter peacefully in the story.
And as it goes on, the story gets more original as we see the monsters are not necessarily who we think.
I did not expect it to be a musical, too, and really, that's not it. But the story revolves around a singer, so she sings (and I stop here so as not to spoil). In french, she is voiced by Vanessa Paradis (yes, Jonnhy Depp's Vanessa) who is a pretty good singer and actress. The songs are pretty good, the other singer (pretty famous in France, too) add some poetry to the thing, but the music is not too much. There is no singing for no reason like in the Disney cartoons.
The rendering of Paris, during the great flood of 1910 (true story) in very well done and the atmosphere is beautiful.
There are a few situation jokes ; you don't explode with laughter but it's funny and you can see that the writers prepared them carefully (the thief joke, for instance). Plus, in the french version, there a plenty of little allusions and puns that are really fun.
All in all, a very enjoyable experience for kids or adults.
This is not quite Pixar, but not quite awful either. It goes for a polished look similar to what we've seen in mainstream American animation, with the soft-lit cartoonish CG similar to that of Dreamworks and Pixar, and comes very close to matching their visual flair despite a more modest budget. It's pretty clear that they're hoping for commercial appeal rather than art-house obscurity here, but the film wants to have it both ways, mixing clichéd humor and characters with artistic flourishes and occasional moments of brilliance. There should be more than enough here to appeal to kids.
It's a pleasant enough experience overall and ultimately it wins you over … but at the same time in a lot of ways it doesn't quite make it. For starters the whole story concept is painfully contrived. But this much is clear even from the shortest synopsis, so I was prepared going in.
Among the highlights of the film are the many appealing visuals drawn from the period Parisian setting. Another highlight is the rich musical score. These almost make the film a cut above, were it not weighed down by some of the more mundane elements.
On the whole it's flawed, but it does have its moments, and is worth a look.
A very enjoyable kids' movie which pays homage to other 'monster'-classics like Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera and King Kong. A feast for the eyes and a classic story with a twist in which losers become heroes, heroes become villains and a monster turns out quite different to what we expect. Well not really, because all monsters are misunderstood gentle souls and greedy ambitious people always turn out to be the real monsters. The story is accompanied by beautiful songs. I regret to have seen the English version because I just know the original French chansons must be even better. My 4 year old daughter, 11 year old son and I loved it and my wife quite enjoyed as well. Certainly not a waste of money like some of the other reviewers said.