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Kirikou and the Wild Beasts Movie Review

Kirikou and the Wild Beasts is a 2005 French animated anthology film directed by Michel Ocelot. It’s a solid and charming, but rather slight feature.

Kirikou’s grandfather says that the story of Kirikou and The Witch was too short, so he proceeds to explain more about Kirikou’s accomplishments. We find out how little boy became a gardener, a detective, a maker of pottery, a merchant, a traveler and a doctor. This movie isn’t a sequel, but more so a midquel as it is set during the events of the original film. As is the case with most anthology films, this one also felt deeply flawed and uneven.

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I would have preferred to have an entirely new adventure for Kirikou, but Michel Ocelot chose the easier (and honestly lazier) route for himself, so he made a film that consists of four smaller adventures that the little guy experiences. These range from rather forgettable to pretty interesting.

The film consists of four segments and I did not care for the first two tales. These are concerned with labor and trade. Yes, they actually made children’s stories about work, so obviously this was never going to be all that interesting. It was nice seeing the dynamic of the villagers (other kids always doubting Kirikou was interesting to witness), but otherwise these segments were lacking in substance and memorable moments.

But the second half really took things up a notch for me. The fourth and final segment has Kirikou find an antidote for the ill women in the village, so he has to go to see Karaba herself. The final scene showcased once again his endearing infatuation with the witch to amusing results. But the third segment is where the spark of magic of the first movie was recaptured at least to a degree. This is where the little boy has to evade capture from the fetishes. He uses a giraffe to climb down a tree, which eventually leads him to a spirited adventure across the gorgeous African vistas.

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Kirikou and the Wild Beasts was so beautiful during that segment and so charming that I wished that the rest of it was as impactful. The movie is short and wildly uneven in quality, but the voice acting is fantastic, the score is pretty strong and the animation is solid, though it only achieved greatness in that lush and stunning third segment. The protagonist is still as adorable as ever, but I just wished that he got a long, fun and daring story worthy of him.