The Little Prince (2015)

I didn't like "The Little Prince" when I was a kid, and I heard it repeatedly as a radio play on a vinyl. It was one of the stories where the ending seemed too sad. I don't recall if I read the book or not at that time, but even if I did it didn't change anything. A couple years ago, when I heard about a new animated version for "The Little Prince", I told myself it might be good to check if my perspective on it changed, but I kept postponing it. Well, I did it now. Verdict: 1. This is not a children's story, despite its animated character. 2. Don't try this alone at home, late at night when you have too many thoughts that don't let you fall asleep - a horror might be a better option :P

I won't start telling the story now. It's the most popular book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, not very lengthy, and probably well-known. For who doesn't know it, it's probably better to give it a read and what's to understand of it will be up to the personal interpretation of each reader. In any case, to explain point 1 above, the text is full of metaphors, some maybe understandable at a young age, but requiring a level of maturity to see their depth. There's simple stuff like "think outside the box" in the first chapters up to not look at an end as the end, in the final part of the book. Which explains (partially :) ) point 2 above, as well as the director's view of this in the 2015 movie. Or to be more precise, I couldn't resist without figuring out why the story doesn't end where I remembered ending, and at about 3 AM I started reading the last chapters of the book to see if I'm prone to an early Alzheimer or not.

It seems not, because the ending of the book is where I knew it was, but still doesn't seem anymore as sad it did. Because the movie moves on as I was saying. It takes a sort of "Neverending Story" approach, another writing with lots of metaphors, where the universe is infinite and alive as long as "there are hopes and dreams", or well... that's at least the way I see now "The Little Prince", because at the time when I was listening to the vinyl I didn't know about "Neverending Story", and there was no "neverending" on the vinyl cover :). Well, it's obviously debatable the version of the director relative to how it goes on from where the book stops, which might seem too Hollywoodish. Even more debatable is the omission of some big parts in the original story. However, I'd say that overall it draws attention on the end of the written story, and does that by pointing out the uncertainty of it. Or to put it differently, an end is just a form and there might be always something after as long as you keep room for questions ;)

"Here, then, is a great mystery. For you who also love the little prince, and for me, nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere, we do not know where, a sheep that we never saw has −− yes or no? −− eaten a rose... Look up at the sky. Ask yourselves: is it yes or no? Has the sheep eaten the flower? And you will see how everything changes... And no grown−up will ever understand that this is a matter of so much importance!" (Antoine de Saint-Exupery - "Le Petit Prince" - English translation)

Rating: 4 out of 5