You won't see more beautiful animation this year. This was sursurrected last summer after the upsetting Little Nicolas – What are we waiting for to be happy? Then repeated after amazing Potted Cat 2. And finally, even after the bum Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse... However, in the case of Deep Sea, we're pretty sure : you won't see more beautiful animation this year ! Back on this nugget presented at NIFFF.
Asian competition
Submitted to NIFFF in the Asian competition (where he lost against the hilarious but well below Marry My Dead Body), the Chinese film Xiaopeng Tian took the room, where the session ended in a handkerchief concert after a painful return to reality.
So why so much praise for this animated feature film? Perhaps because he manages to rise to the technical level of the Pixarwhile offering both a staggering visual spectacle, a strong political message and quality entertainment for both young and old. A winning combo that Disney's subsidiary has no longer managed to bring together since beautiful lurette!
Undersea message?
First the political message? Let's go... Deep Sea is a Chinese film about a little girl, suddenly abandoned by her parents while her younger brother was born. A clear call from the foot to the one-child policy (abandoned since 2015) that has deeply shaken the country. Without deflowering more intrigue that must be discovered, it is also a matter of a world dominated by work, hastening the lives of the characters to their home. A work against which the only escape remains imagination.
Finally, the antagonist of history – at least one of them – is nothing but « The Red Ghost » : a color mass of blood that embraces everything in its passage and annihilation exuberant world of Deep Sea for its vermilion uniformity. A metaphor of the communist power in place, totipotent, throwing its tentacles without vergogne into the intimacy of the homes? The metaphor is hard to avoid...
Visual Hallucinations
But don't think that Deep Sea be only a pamphlet vaguely disguised as entertainment. On the contrary! The feature film is the promise of a journey in imagination, alternating between grandiose landscapes luging on Van Gogh's side and a gallery of tricky characters (including tripotes of otters much more croquignolettes than all the best cuteries in Pixar, and it's not because of my avatar that I say that). While the problems inherent in 3D are indeed present (some saccaded passages and a slight lack of brightness), the technology is justified by its immersive effect and seems to have been thought from one end of the feature film to another.
Then when the end comes, a box enjoins the larmoying spectator to wake up: the journey is over! Ultimate coup de grâce for those who would not have already succumbed to emotion following the triple climax and their multiple reversals of situation (in which even cinema imagery holds an important place). Even the hardened will drop their tears and take advantage of the beautiful 2D generic this time to dry their eyes and, difficult, find the way out. We've warned you: you won't see more beautiful animation this year! The release in the French theatres is announced today on 21/02/24... Patience!
Criticism of Deep Sea : A Flood of Emotions
Trailer of Deep Sea
It's a nugget I discovered with Kilian at NIFFF. The pleasure of discovery must be kept in mind to get carried away in this touching story. And indeed difficult to remain stoic in the face of such a beautiful story. It's been a long time since we saw such a success, even (and even less) at Pixar or Disney. Instant classic.
The images are absolutely whaou!!!
And the movie, I don't talk about it. I haven't seen such a touching animated movie in a while.
Hurry to find out!