Touching & original, this stop-motion animation from Claude Barras (a Swiss/French production) doesn’t fit into the usual categories. Technically looser, with a playful aspect to its movement & toy-like settings, it has a tough Euro-sensibility that’s not particularly for kids. Yet it’s not NOT for kids, if you catch our drift. Zucchini (Courgette to give him his French nickname*), 9-yr-old son of an abusive/alcoholic mother, only shut the attic door to keep her out, but it was an action that caused her accidental death. Now alone, he’s sent to a little home for troubled orphans where he must fit in and deal with his situation. Luckier than some, he makes a pair of special friends: a freckled boy he mostly fights with; and a girl whose troubles include a nasty aunt who’d like to adopt her for the inheritance. Zucchini also bonds with his case worker, a lonely man who’s lost touch with a grown son of his own. Small incidents resonate loudly here, nicely caught by simple production values whose charm & ingenuity helps reveal the basic humanity of the characters. Barely an hour, but with big laughs & big emotions any kid should respond to. Even with a PG-13 rating.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Our poster lists a starry English-language vocal cast, but the film plays far better with the French kids on the original French track. And note an equal lack of care in that added article in the English-language title: MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI. Hey, he’s not a vegetable, it’s a nickname.
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