Saturday, January 31, 2015

The King and the Mockingbird (movie review)

The King and the Mockingbird (English title for a film from France), is really not that old:  1980, my year to finish a four year college.

And yet I'd not heard of it until now, a missing puzzle piece in some ways.

The mockingbird, a caring father of baby birds, speaks truth to power, an insufferable King who has a crush on a much younger woman who's already Facebook Friends with a chimney sweep (read:  lower class dude) her own age (and type).

The King plans on asserting white privilege in true royal style, only to be stymied by a bunch of sensitive lions riled to rebellion by a blind yet hope-filled musician, moved by the mockingbird's sly tale telling.

The world Paul Grimault creates is awesome, complete with improbable elevators and a giant robot, shades of Code Guardian, all in a swoopy "New Swine-stein" castle-like setting (with allusions to Mad King Ludwig cite Royal Babylon).

It's a modern police state in a nutshell, with a dictator run amuk.

What a great anthropological study (and spoof) of a theoretical ant hill (of the kind humans build).  I'm so glad I got to view this restored (and dubbed) version.