Azur &
Asmar
After
having known a phenomenal triumph with “Kirikou and the witch” then
“Kirikou and the wild beasts”, of the African tales, the producer
Michel Ocelot launched out in the development of a new animated
movie, with is this time an Arab inspiration and the introduction of
animation in 3D. From its ambition was born “Azure and Asmar”.
It was once Azur, fair with the blue eyes, wire of lord of the manor,
and Asmar, brown with the black eyes, wire of the nurse of azur. The
two small boys were high like brothers, under the lenient eye of their
mother of flesh and milk, in a beautiful castle, in the middle of a
green and flowered country. But one fine day, the father of Azure
decides that his/her son became sufficiently tall: he will not need
more nurse, issues he. That which was a mother for Azur is
push out at once without care. The two foster brothers
are brutally separate.
But Azur forgets neither the companions of its childhood nor the songs
and the legends of its nurse, in particular that of the beautiful fairy
of the Djinns, imprisoned with life in waiting to be delivered by a
beautiful prince. Become large, Azur is at the head put to join the
country of the sun, to achieve its dream, to find the fairy and to
marry it.
At the end of the perilous tour, it reaches the coasts of this ground,
phantasm of its childhood. But reality hardly corresponds to its
waiting. Its blue eyes frighten the inhabitants, who reject it such
one bet. But Azur refuses to give up. With the assistance of Crapoux,
another foreigner met on the road, it decides despite everything to do
everything to find the fairy. Arrived downtown, a fortunate coincidence
the met in the presence of its former nurse.
If this one accommodates it with joy, Asmar, does not seem to him happy
to re-examine his/her foster brother. From now on rival, the brothers
of yesterday leave to the conquest the fairy in a world wonders. Both
will
have to face dangers and magic spells to gain elected of their heart.
In 2001, “Azure and Asmar” reached only the stage of the scenario. It
was necessary more than five preparatory years, 1.280 plans and 13.000
drawings to give life to this tale imagined from thousand and one parts
of the Maghrebian, Eastern or Moslem culture. At the end of this
strenuous work, mixes techniques 2D and 3D, emerges a sophisticated
graphic work, inspired of the miniatures Persians to Flemish primitive
paintings while passing by Turkish or Andalusian architecture.
On the bottom, Michel Ocelot wished to evoke the relations between
France and the Maghreb, this “ordinary animosity between citizens of
stock and recent citizens (...) between Occident and the Middle East”
through a praise of the difference and mixture of the cultures, in
particular by using the two languages, French and Arabic. Presented at
About fifteen the producers at the Festival of Cannes 2006, this fable
on the tolerance and the interbreeding conquered right now a large
majority of criticisms and will allure without any doubt the very many
fans of Michel Ocelot.
In spite of this great announced success, “Azur and Asmar” will leave
certain spectators of ice, isolated and in full cinematographic
questioning. Is this legitimates to consider the drawings ugly and the
yelling colors? To find the intrigue weak and the adventures punts? Are
there no stereotypes in spite of the ambition posted to avoid them? And
why is it necessary that this film either if filled up anger and of
sadness, that only the appearances of small the princess and the
outcome bring a hope of humor there? Children or adults, that those
which feel terribly foreign out of ground of Ocelot reassure, because
the morals of the history, it, is right: the difference enriches the
world and is assumed, including that of those which do not like “Azur
and Asmar”.
