Eumenides_0 In the spirit of the holiday season I decided to finally watch this classic of animation. Although not an official Christmas movie, I think its light-heartedness and ideas of heroism, solidarity and the triumph of love over tyranny make it a perfect movie for this time of the year.In the vertical kingdom of Takicardia the King Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI rules with an iron fist. He likes no one and no one likes him. His hobby is hunting birds, which attracts the enmity of the title's Mockingbird, a joyful talking bird. The story properly begins when one night the King's portrait comes to life and falls in love with the portrait of a shepherdess, who in turn loves the portrait of a chimney sweep next to her. The King's portrait kills the real one and pursues the fugitive star-crossed lovers, who use the Mockingbird's help to evade the dangers and obstacles on their path to freedom.Paul Grimault and screenwriter Jacques Prévert found the inspiration for this magical story in one of Hans Christian Andersen's many fairy-tales. Production started in 1948 and, after a shorter version came out in 1952, it was released in its complete version in 1980. More than thirty years in the making, The King and the Mockingbird is now considered one of the best animated movies ever made and fans of Japanese animation may like to know that Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki consider it an influence on their work.Like these animators, Grimault and Prévert don't believe animation precludes seriousness. Hidden inside a simple love story is a bigger story about tyranny and class difference. The creators make several parallels between the King and Hitler: in some shots they look the same; in his cult of personality (a factory works non-stop to produce statues of his majesty); and in an scene when he sentences the chimney sweep and the Mockingbird to forced labour, he declares that work is freedom, eerily evoking Auschwitz' motto. The other face of the exuberant Takicardia is the Lower City, a community of poor people living under the streets, hidden from the sun, who maintain hope alive thanks to a blind musician.The animation, very traditional-looking in appearance, is one of the movie's best assets. The Kingdom of Takicardia, designed like an exaggerated fairy-tale castle, is characterized by long vertical lines and deep perspective, giving it the illusion of infinite space. Some of the best scenes are those that simply reveal details of its architecture, like the never-ending steep staircases, the long corridors, or the sombre streets of the cave-like Lower City. There's also retro look in the way technology is drawn (there's a giant robot in the movie that could have walked out of a '50s science fiction movie), and the attention to little details invite the viewer to study each frame for a few minutes just to absorb everything.Fans of animation in the style of the bizarre 2003 French movie The Triplets of Belleville will probably love The King and the Mockingbird. It's a fairy-tale movie full of magic and humor, told in a very tender way with a life-affirming final message. I challenge anyone to watch this movie and not be emotionally affected by it.

runcyclexcski I saw The King and the Bird ~25 years ago in the Soviet Union, professionally translated and dubbed. The movie, ironically, fits very well the Soviet ideology (the poor get explored by the rich, the rich living in sky-scraper-like palaces etc). Apparently the movie is not available in the US with English subtitles. The movie fascinated me as a ~7 year old, but also disturbed me quite profoundly. After I watched it again in 2010 I have realized that I remember ~50% of the movie quite literally 25 years later. Some scenes still don't make sense to me, just like the didn't back in the early 80s, e.g. the king from the painting getting rid of the real king 15 min into the movie and taking over the rest of the show. Some parts of the story and some scenes in the animation itself could have more attention to detail, they stand out. E.g. the lion scene is showing very abstract lions; and later I learned that the scene was added ~30 years later.

Rectangular_businessman "The King and the Mockingbird" is simply one of the most beautiful animated films ever made. I can clearly see how the works of Hayao Miyazaki (One of my favorite Japanese animators) were influenced by this, specially in the music, characters and mechanic designs. The animation is flawless, despite being made in 1980, it had the quality of the Golden Age of animation, reminding me a lot the shorts of Max Fleischer and the classic animated films from Walt Disney. I loved everything about this film. The whimsical story, the superb animation, the beautiful music, the charming characters...All was perfect. Too bad that there aren't very much animations like this anymore. If you love the Disney classics and the works done by Max Fleischer and Hayao Miyazaki, you shouldn't miss this one.I would give this eleven stars if I could.

dbdumonteil I saw this film when I was a child and it mesmerized me. I saw it recently and my fascination for this film hasn't declined. This film is a marvel. Among its particularities that are quite numerous, let's quote: the beauty of the landscapes , the harmony of the colors, the perfection of music and especially the irony of the dialogues which is not surprising as they were written by Jacques Prévert. Moreover, in this film (which was awarded by the "Louis Delluc" price in 1979 and it deserved it), Paul Grimault's goal is to show us his hatred of the tyranny and his defence in favour of the poor and the weak. The film shows a great contrast concerning this thema: the king and his court lives in modernity, in the light and in gigantic palace whereas the population lives in darkness, in obscurity and in poverty. As a conclusion sentence: a wonderful animation film which is much better than any Disney films