Movie Info
Movie Name: My Life as a Zucchini
Studio: Blue Spirit Productions
Genre(s): Animated/Drama
Release Date(s): May 15, 2016 (Cannes)/September 2016 (Switzerland)/October 19, 2016 (France)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Being an orphan must be tough…
Icare lives a sheltered life with his alcoholic, abusive mother who refers to him as Zucchini. When an accident occurs, Zucchini is sent to an orphanage where he finds a whole group of children dealing with problems of their own. The arrival of a girl named Camille changes Zucchini’s life and the life of those at the orphanage, but Officer Raymond could change Zucchini’s life forever!
Directed by Claude Barras, My Life as a Zucchini (Ma vie de Courgette) is a Switzerland-France collaboration stop-motion animated film. The movie adapts the 2002 novel by Gilles Paris Autobiographie d’une Courgette and was released to positive reviews. The film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Animated Film.
Being an orphan means amusement parks!
From the poster, I imagined My Life as a Zucchini a quirky kids’ film…until you start watching it. It immediately thrusts Zucchini into a life of abuse and an accidental murder. He is joined with physically and mentally abused children who desperately want a home…and the movie continues to get dark while still making laughs.
The movie is PG-13 for a reason and isn’t necessarily kid friendly. The story’s darkness has orphan children fearing their relatives, being separated by the government, or just complete abandonment. It does show that children can be strong in the face of adversity and that life does go on even if it seems like it won’t in the moment. It is a rather short film and keeps moving through the telling of the story.
The movie did bring in a cast to re-voice the film for American audiences. While the children’s voices are relatively unknown, Nick Offerman, Amy Sedaris, Will Forte, and Elliot Page (credited as Ellen Page). The voice actors all do a great job making the characters relatable and rounded.
…an orphan means you get trips to the Alps to ski? Sign me up!
Visually the movie is very stylized. The designs for the characters in the movie fall somewhere between a traditional stop motion character and a film like A Nightmare Before Christmas. They are surreal but living in a real world and much of the background design is minimal…but it all works with the story and the storytelling.
My Life as a Zucchini was a good film that was rather unexpected. The movie doesn’t take you down the normal path for a movie about and “starring” children, but it feels more real than a lot of films that do star children. It is an adult film for adults but with a child perspective…which is always good to remember.
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