Rotten
In trying to tell an epic tale over just 78 minutes, the filmmakers sacrifice anything that might have made their film memorable.
Tom Huddleston, Time Out
Zarafa
2012 · 1h 18m · NOT RATED
Animation, Family
Directed by
Rémi Bezançon
,
Jean-Christophe Lie
Overview
Inspired by the true story of the first giraffe to visit France, Zarafa is a sumptuously animated and stirring adventure, and a throwback to a bygone era of hand-drawn animation and epic storytelling set among sweeping CinemaScope vistas of parched desert, wind-swept mountains and open skies. Under the cover of darkness a small boy, Maki, loosens the shackles that bind him and escapes into the desert night. Pursued by slavers across the moon-lit savannah, Maki meets Zarafa, a baby giraffe – and an orphan, just like him – as well as the nomad Hassan, Prince of the Desert. Hassan takes them to Alexandria for an audience with the Pasha of Egypt, who orders him to deliver the exotic animal as a gift to King Charles of France.
Director and cast
- Rémi Bezançon Director
- Jean-Christophe Lie Director
- Max Renaudin as Maki (voice)
- Simon Abkarian as Hassan (voice)
- Vernon Dobtcheff as Le vieux sage (voice)
- Roger Dumas as Charles X (voice)
- Ronit Elkabetz as Bouboulina (voice)
- Mohamed Fellag as Mahmoud (voice)
- Déborah François as Zarafa adulte (voice)
- Thierry Frémont as Moreno (voice)
- Philippe Morier-Genoud as Saint-Hilaire (voice)
- Mostéfa Stiti as Pacha
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
76%
Tomatometer
Fresh
This hand-drawn French adventure is a children's story in the routine template of many friends-and-villains quests, but with a fresh historical setting and a serenely subdued look.
Nicolas Rapold, New York Times
Fresh
Since there are giraffes in Parisian zoos, there necessarily had to be a first one, and Remi Bezancon and Jean-Christophe Lie's Zarafa is a beautifully animated and often moving telling of how it arrived there in the early 1800s.
Sherilyn Connelly, Village Voice
Fresh
While the gorgeous widescreen landscapes have a pencil-and-aquarelle quality, the characters themselves are literally rougher-edged, a clever reminder of the hand-drawn, sketchlike quality of traditional animation.
Boyd van Hoeij, Variety
Fresh
A colorfully compelling kids flick with darker historical undertones, Zarafa reps a smart and successful freshman animation effort from writer-director Remi Bezancon.
Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter
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