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My Life as a Zucchini Review Thread. 100% RT, nominated for the Animation Oscar

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Oersted

Member
My_Life_as_a_Zucchini.jpg


Here is the official US website, with trailer and screeninglist


http://mylifeasazucchini.com/


Synopsis

After his mother’s sudden death, Zucchini is befriended by a police officer, Raymond, who accompanies him to his new foster home, filled with other orphans his age. At first he struggles to find his place in this at times strange and hostile environment. But with Raymond’s help and his newfound friends, Zucchini eventually learns to trust and love, as he searches for a new family of his own.


Critic Consensus

My Life as a Zucchini's silly title and adorable characters belie a sober story whose colorful visuals delight the senses even as it braves dark emotional depths.

Reviews

Orphans, as Charles Dickens knew, are great subjects. If there's anything right with this world, Claude Barras' stop-motion animated marvel My Life as a Zucchini--also known as My Life as a Courgette--will be remembered as a great entry in the orphan canon.

http://time.com/4672989/my-life-as-a-zucchini-review/

Leave it to a French-language stop-motion film to cut closer to the reality of the orphan experience than “Annie,” “Matilda” or any number of like-minded live-action melodramas have over the years — assuming, of course, you can get past the whimsical fact that its parentless wretch sports blue hair and a potato-shaped noggin.

https://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/my-life-as-a-courgette-review-1201766688/

. But to follow in the footsteps of the orphans, who use a weather board to suggest what mood they are in on any given day by selecting a meteorological condition (clear, cloudy, thunderstorms …), this critic would definitely rate this film “sunny” for the soul.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/my-life-as-a-courgette-891734

Ignore the Title. 'My Life as a Zucchini' Is an Uncommonly Courageous Kids' Film About the Cycle of Abuse

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/ig...us-kids-film-about-the-cycle-of-abuse-9698052

Orphanages conjure up images of the hard-knock life and servings of gruel. This tough, deeply moving, Céline Sciamma-penned, 66-minute stop-motion gem from France shows the flipside. Sure, harsh realities are inevitably encountered — sometimes in a more uncompromising fashion than you’ll ever see in what is ostensibly a children’s film — but Claude Barras’ feature-directing debut has heart enough to show.

https://thefilmstage.com/reviews/lff-review-my-life-as-a-courgette/

But no matter what language it's in, My Life as Zucchini never sacrifices what's true for what's trite. This is animation as an art form, inspiring and indelible.

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/peter-travers-my-life-as-a-zucchini-movie-review-w468004

The charming Swiss Oscar contender proves kids’ movies don’t have to coddle young viewers.

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/02/my-life-as-a-zucchini-review-best-animated-feature-1201786230/



Will add more

Lock if old

my-life-as-a-courgette-620x349.jpg
 

Osahi

Member
Best animated movie of last year, and would deserve the Oscar so much. Will never win though, which is a crying shame. But I can't sing it's praise to much.
 

VAD

Member
I'm ashamed I haven't seen it yet. It was filmed in my city and got lot of coverage but I still skipped watching it. Maybe when it will be re-released after its Oscar win.
 
I do t know why America needs to use the word zucchini considering everyone else calls it a courgette.

Stupid word.

To be fair, Australia uses Zucchini too, whenever I get a courgette and go through self checkout at the supermarket I forget what it's called and spend ten minutes looking for courgette (I'm English but live in Aus).... It usually ends with me asking someone "What do you call this over here?" whilst waving a green vegetable at them. Classy.
 

Osahi

Member
Better than zootopia and moana?

Yes. By a really big margin. (I foudn Moana mediocre. Finding Dory was a more deserving nominee, even though it's not a great movie. Zootopia was realy good, but has issues.)

It's not only a beautifuly crafted movie, it also tells a moving story that works for kids as well as adults. (Being told completely from the point of view of kids, a lot of stuff flies over the heads of the characters and their reactions can be quite funny for an adult). It's also a very daring movie. It doesn't shy away from difficult themes and hard truths, but handles them with so much warmth it never gets heavy handedN

That screenshot in the OP is from an incredibly moving little scène btw. Hit me right in the feels.

What Oscar nominies goed, this is actually my ranking:

1. Ma Vie de Courgette
2. The Red Turtle
3. Kubo & The Two Strings
4. Zootopia
5. Moana

But I think Zootopia will win.
 
Yes. By a really big margin. (I foudn Moana mediocre. Finding Dory was a more deserving nominee, even though it's not a great movie. Zootopia was realy good, but has issues.)

It's not only a beautifuly crafted movie, it also tells a moving story that works for kids as well as adults. (Being told completely from the point of view of kids, a lot of stuff flies over the heads of the characters and their reactions can be quite funny for an adult). It's also a very daring movie. It doesn't shy away from difficult themes and hard truths, but handles them with so much warmth it never gets heavy handedN

That screenshot in the OP is from an incredibly moving little scène btw. Hit me right in the feels.

What Oscar nominies goed, this is actually my ranking:

1. Ma Vie de Courgette
2. The Red Turtle
3. Kubo & The Two Strings
4. Zootopia
5. Moana

But I think Zootopia will win.

You convinced me, i'll find the way to watch it. I still find it would be difficult to surpass both Zootopia and Moana, but hey, nice to see more quality animated movies.
 
Not exactly a high bar to jump across lol.

The Red Turtle, Kubo, Your Name, My Life As a Courgette/Zucchini, and Psychonauts The Forgotten Children were all better.

Dude please. Both movies were amazing,

Zootopia specially in these times for the social commentary,
Moana was beautifully animated and the OST is glorious.
 

traveler

Not Wario
Kubo was disappointingly weak, as someone who absolutely loved Coraline. Moana and Zootopia are both better. Even Finding Dory was notably better.

Need to see if this is showing somewhere in Seattle. Hadn't had a chance to catch the more limited run animation of the year.
 

Jesus Carbomb

From Water into Guinness
Lets hope this film doesn't get dropped like The Little Prince. I'm still a little sour about that.

Not exactly a high bar to jump across lol.

The Red Turtle, Kubo, Your Name, My Life As a Courgette/Zucchini, and Psychonauts The Forgotten Children were all better.

I like Kubo but you're really overhyping it.
 
God it's only screening in one theater in LA and while it's nice it's probably got the worst parking out of all the independent theaters in SoCal. I'll try to catch it this weekend.
 

Camjo-Z

Member
This looks great, but man I don't wanna have to drive all the way to Harrisburg to see it. Looks like I'll be waiting for the home release.
 
Not exactly a high bar to jump across lol.

The Red Turtle, Kubo, Your Name, My Life As a Courgette/Zucchini, and Psychonauts The Forgotten Children were all better.

Zootopia was great and has a basic ass message that's much needed in 2016/2017. Great characters and ridiculously good animation.

Kubo was decent but definitely not a mass market appeal, and Your Name, well, it wasn't my cup of tea and I honestly couldn't hype it or even put it on my own recommended list, though it does look great at times.

This one sounds interesting, so will try and watch it at some point.
 
Just got back from it, was bloody amazing. Within its extremely short runtime you get wonderfully characterized children, a ton of adorable humor and some unforgettable moments about the resilience of children in the face of unimaginable trauma. It's just so damn fun to watch the kids do what they do without the superfluous narrative signage present in a lot of "kids" animation. Top marks all around, if you get an opportunity to watch it I can't recommend it enough.
 
I finally saw Zucchini and wow was it a really wonderful movie! So sweet and touching. It has deep themes but manages to be fun too- expertly constructed. At first I wasn't sure I liked the visual style but it grew on me.

As an aside, there's a lot more love for Finding Dory in this thread than I would have expected. That movie was a real let down. Aside from the cool animated octopus I didn't care about anything going on in that movie. In thinking back now, I actually remember very little about it- nothing stood out.
 
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