Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is a vibrantly colorful, beautifully animated, and heartwarmingly sweet movie that is the cinematic equivalent of being wrapped up in a warm blanket for an hour and seventeen minutes. Between this and Arco, I’m realizing now that the potential successors to Hayao Miyazaki are not in Japan but in France.
This is particularly relevant when discussing this movie because while watching Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia that reminded me of the feelings I had when watching My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service dozens of times as a child. Like with those Miyazaki movies, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is driven by a child-like sense of wonder and imagination that bursts throughout every frame of this film, and is so charming to watch that I couldn’t help but have the same goofy grin I had watching Totoro and Kiki.
On the topic of Miyazaki, it’s clear that Ghibli movies were a major source of inspiration in terms of the presentation, as there’s a lot about this movie from its visuals and art style that feels reminiscent of the studio’s catalogue, notably The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. However, like Arco approached its inspirations, the film manages to wear its influences on its sleeve without feeling derivative or a rip-off of the movies it’s inspired by, as it carves out its own visual identity.
The way Little Amélie or the Character of Rain uses pastel colors when bringing its characters and setting to life makes me feel as if I’m watching an impressionistic children’s book come to life and jump directly onto my screen. This movie boasts a wonderfully unique and stylish art style that manages to stand out from most other modern animated movies, while still maintaining the nostalgic feeling I had with the Ghibli movies I grew up with.
However, what truly made me fall in love with Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is its titular character, Amélie, and the surreal yet charming coming-of-age journey she undergoes throughout the film. It’s clear that a lot of what is presented on screen is supposed to be allegorical, as throughout the film, Amélie is capable of pulling off miraculous feats, such as causing spring flowers to blossom as she runs past them or travelling to a spiritual afterlife to talk to her grandmother after falling into a lake. Amélie even claims that she’s God, but the movie reveals that what she sees or does stems from either her imagination or her perception of the world. It even confirms this by providing follow-up scenes that demonstrate what actually happened during these more whimsically surreal moments.
I love how Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is structured because the contrast between the fantastical and grounded provides a window into Amélie’s perspective and all the childhood nostalgia and imagination that comes with it, while also never shying away from the reality of her situation.
There is never a moment when the movie feels overly sentimental or condescending to the audience, because, like Miyazaki’s films, it strikes a balance between indulging in sweetness and warmth while also portraying the more serious moments properly. Throughout the film, Amélie is constantly faced with the concept of death, never fully understanding what it is but having enough self-awareness to know that it’s something so consequential that it can scar a person. She sees this through her loved ones, one of them being her father, in which, during a particularly powerful moment, she sees him crying after learning that a close family member has passed.
A prime example of this is the scene in which the family maid recounts the horrors she faced during World War II to Amélie. What’s particularly striking about this scene is that it doesn’t rely on any clichés, like playing a flashback of what happened. Instead, the maid uses cooking and food to communicate her trauma; it’s such an effective scene because, by using the animation and sound design, it takes what would typically be predictable and tropey and turns it into something stylistically unique while also doing a much better job of conveying the proper emotions than a flashback would have.
Everything about this film, from its visual presentation to its writing and narrative, is precise and meticulous, providing both children and adults with just enough information to understand what’s happening without alienating either demographic. I loved every minute of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, and while its one hour and 17 minutes is the perfect runtime for a story like this, I couldn’t help but crave more adventures with Amélie and her family once the credits rolled.
Directors Mailys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han did a fantastic job with this movie, and I look forward to seeing what their next project will be. If they continue making great films like this one, then they certainly have the potential to become this generation’s Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata.
Rating: 9/10