European Films

Two boys, one European, the other Arab, grew up together in Medieval Europe and find each other again in Arabia in the French animated film Azur et Asmar (Azur & Asmar). Their shared quest as young adults is to find the Fairy Djinn and marry her, but -- though set in fairytale Arabia -- no polygamy is involved. The story preaches peace and brotherhood between the nations, but its blend of Indiana Jones, A Thousand and One Nights and a socio-political commentary on European-Arab relations is just as muddled as the recent Ridley Scott crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven, which at least was pitched at adults. Michel Ocelot, veteran of the two hand-drawn Kirikou films, directs, Gabriel Yared wrote the score and computers did the animation. Despite the involvement of at least two human beings, the result lacks warmth and compassion, though Azur et Asmar does looks like a an especially sumptuous screensaver in the film’s latter half.

Azur (voice of Rayan Mahjoub as a child, Cyril Mourali as an adolescent) is the son of well-to-do man and Asmar (Abdelsselem Ben Amar as a child, Karim M'Riba as an adolescent) is the son of Azur's immigrant nanny (voiced by Hiam Abbass, from Paradise Now), who lets the two boys play together. When Azur comes of age, his nanny and her son are cruelly sent away by Azur’s father, upon which Azur decides to find them on foreign shores.

He lands in Arabia, where people look at him strangely because of his blue eyes (they are considered an omen of ill luck), and is helped navigate the strange lands by a bespectacled stranger (voiced by Patrick Timsit) who is forever complaining, insulting and swindling everyone. This nasty character has all the makings of a comic sidekick in the Disney vein but late revelations show Ocelot -- who also wrote the script -- as intending the character to mirror the teachings of the main characters and the larger ruminations of the plot, something which only partially works. 

Children will most enjoy the film's second half (this is an animated film where arriving late might be a good idea), which follows the reunited Azur and Asmar on their quest to find the Fairy Djinn, aided by a smarty-pants child princess (voiced by Fatma Ben Khell) who provides important gadgets and advice to complete their goals. Their journey starts off with the two in competition (because only one can marry the Fairy Djinn) but a happy ending is never in doubt (though how this is resolved might be something of a shocker for the extremely politically correct).

The Indiana Jones-inspired obstacle course that dominates the film's latter reels provides plenty of opportunities for scenes of computer-animated wizardry (non-figurative Islamic art was an obvious inspiration for the sets, making for some very pretty, though screensaver-like, scenes)  but character development in this second half is so predictable it will likely leave adults indiferent, a sentiment which is not aided by the mechanical and obviously computer-generated faces and movements of the characters, who lack warmth and anything akin to personality traits that are not strictly tied to the plot.

Anyone still in primary school will love the second part, however, which means adults are in the difficult position of having to decide whether to give Ocelot the benefit of the doubt. Letting the little ones view this on their own on DVD (with the fast-forward button within reach) might be the best idea.

This film was screened as part of the 2006 Flanders Film Festival at Ghent and the 2006 Francophone Film Festival at Namur. 

Buy the DVD at: amazon.fr, internetbookshop.it. 

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