“Princess Dragon”, a touching tale about the strength of friendship
Princess Dragon ***
by Jean-Jacques Denis and Anthony Roux, 1:14 a.m.
Once upon a time there were two little girls, Hair and Princess, that everything separated but that fate ended up reuniting. After making a pact with a witch, a dragon inherited three eggs. Out of the last one came Hair, a strange human capable of breathing fire and covered with abundant green hair.
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She was the one he decided to sell to pay the witch, despite the heap of gold amassed in her lair… Abandoned, Poil fled and met Princess, the daughter of a greedy and brutal king. Together, they will learn that the strength of bonds of friendship can triumph over adversity.
Complex and fascinating female character
Classic initiatory story, Dragon princess is distinguished by its strong characters that the directors take the time to observe, detailing their temperament, the evolution of their character as they grow up. Hair, in particular, follows an accelerated growth, punctuated by phases of withdrawal into an eggshell … In search of her identity, the young girl evokes the complex and fascinating female characters of cartoons from Ghibli studios, from Nausicaä to Princess Mononoke.
The reference to Hayao Miyazaki’s films is also aesthetic. The luxuriant nature is magnified here in decorations as if painted with watercolors. Happy mixture of strange and fairy youth illustration from the end of the 19th centurye century and burlesque mimicry borrowed from manga, Dragon princess also benefits from a careful dubbing which makes the characters all the more funny and endearing. Voices directed by Céline Ronté, who has already exercised her talents on many quality animated films (Calamity, The summit of the gods, The Big Bad Fox).
Far from animated productions with a frenetic rhythm, this pretty tale is seen as one flips through a beautiful illustrated album, whose moral, discreetly distilled, is both simple and painful: the bonds of friendship can appease the possible precariousness of the filial ties. .
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