Azur & Asmar (2006)
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Azur & Asmar Movie Review
Azur & Asmar is a 2006 French animated fantasy film directed by Michel Ocelot. It’s another one of the director’s masterpieces.
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“Their blood’s the same colour!“
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Azur and Asmar were little children when they first heard the story of the Djinn fairy. After the two are separated, they both decide to find her. This is another original story that was loosely inspired by famous folk talks and fairy tales from this region. Whereas ‘Kirikou’ was set in North Africa, this one is set in the Middle East, and I just admire endlessly the director’s willingness to explore all of these rarely portrayed in film cultures.
I absolutely adored this movie. Let’s start with this plot. It’s simply a wonderful, old-fashioned, traditional fairy tale that is emotionally resonant as well. It’s engaging in its entirety, and it’s quite often breathtakingly enchanting. The film is also quite rich thematically speaking, though seemingly not so. And that is its biggest achievement – its subdued, clever nature.
It deals in the little princess with feminism, and female suffrage in the Middle East, but very subtly. The moment when she let her hair loose and free was so powerful. And the film’s treatment of the importance of mutual respect between different cultures and nations is so well handled. It’s a seemingly simplistic, but actually rather rewarding picture.
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But what I personally loved about it is the adventure. It is a very adventurous, highly enjoyable, magical cinematic experience that is consistently riveting to watch. My favorite scenes are with the little girl, every moment with her out on the streets was just so beautiful, tender and detailed. It trumped Jasmine’s scene on the streets from ‘Aladdin’, which says a lot.
I also loved the quests, the lion one being so majestic, and the relationship between the two brothers is very well explored, going from very close to unfortunately somewhat estranged owing to the distance in space and time. Both are quite well developed, and Azur is a solid center for the whole movie, albeit the supporting players are even better.
Crapoux is such a fun, at times even funny sidekick that could have easily been obnoxious, but he ended up being quite amusing, and serving his purpose for sure. Jenane herself is a powerful, admirable female figure. And my favorite naturally has to be the little princess. She is so damn cute and endearing, but also a genuinely strong female voice despite her age, and I just found all the scenes with her to be the film’s strongest, most human points.
Where Azur & Asmar: The Princes’ Quest shines the most is in the area of animation. This is undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous-looking animated films of its time period, and it’s quite underrated in that and every other regard. I personally would have gone with hand-drawn instead of computer animation, but it’s even more impressive that they managed to make CGI look this traditional and this magical.
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Yes, the ornamental, Eastern style to the architecture, interiors and clothing made the film very authentic and realistic for the area that it depicts. In particular, I adored its use of the color blue as well as some truly artistic, stunning outdoors scenes and imagery. Some scenes here are truly magical, and the animation is the biggest reason for that feeling. The direction from Michel Ocelot is fantastic, and although I still prefer ‘Kirikou’, this is his masterpiece as well. The editing and pacing are excellent as is the score. Everything here is technically polished, and simply having a lot of heart, and brimming with fairy tale magic.
Thanks to a terrific adventurous feel to it, an enchanting fairy tale spirit and a cast of endearing characters, especially the supporting ones, Azur & Asmar is an absolute gem of French animation that benefits from gorgeous, frequently even stunning and highly artistic, meticulously detailed ornamental animation. Authentic in setting, thematically subtle, captivating and simply brimming with magic, it presents another indelible proof that Michel Ocelot truly is one of the undisputed masters of animation.
