Leap 2016

      This film begins in an orphanage in rural Brittany and then moves to Paris during the time the Eifel Tower was under construction in the 1880’s.  The tower was completed in 1889 and the Statue of Liberty was also made by Eifel and completed in 1894.  Felicie has always wanted to be a dancer and Victor has always wanted to be an inventor.  They meet in the orphanage and Victor comes up with a plan for them to escape to Paris.  Felicie meets Odette, she is a former prima ballerina but she had an accident and injured her leg.  Now she is a house cleaner and she agrees to teach ballet to Felicie.  Odette works for Regine Le Haut, a wealthy restaurant owner and also for the Paris Opera.  Regine’s daughter Camille is in competition with Felicie for the role of Clara in The Nutcracker.  The school’s exacting choreographer Merante is overseeing the ballet.  He dismisses the worst dancer in class every day.

     Both the animation and the story are good.  It tells the story of a girl and boy with disadvantaged backgrounds seeking the opportunity to fulfill their dreams.  They have successes and failures but they persevere despite the difficulties and opposition.  There is unfairness and then correction of these situations.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

89 min, Animation directed by Eric Summer and Eric Warin with the voices of Elle Fanning, Dane DeHaan, Carly Rae Jepsen, Maddie Ziegler, Terrence Scammell, Tamir Kapelian, Julie Khaner, Joe Sheridan, Elana Dunkelman.

Note:  Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 37% critic 63% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 1 1/2*, Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 428 reviews, Pluggedin 4* out of 5*, Metacritic 48 out of 100 with 18 critics 6.3 out of 10 with 21 reviews.

Special Note:  This is a French-Canadian animation film.  The original title was Ballerina and changed to Leap in the US.  Eric Summer, Carol Noble and Laurent Zeitoun wrote the script.  The budget was estimated at $30 million and the gross was $106 million worldwide as of December 7, 2017.