Story
The central character in this version of The Little Prince is the Girl (voiced by Mackenzie Foy), whose name is never mentioned. The Girl lives with her Mother (voiced by Rachel McAdams), who’s a single workaholic with big ambitions for her daughter.
In order for the Girl to be accepted into a prestigious college, the Mother and the Girl move into the school zone. The Mother also devises a rigid study plan for the Girl to follow over the summer holidays. Left by herself for most of the time, the Girl soon becomes distracted by her peculiar neighbour, the eccentric elderly Aviator (voiced by Jeff Bridges, and one of the characters from the original novella).
The Girl and the Aviator become friends. The Aviator tells the Girl how he once crashed his plane in the Sahara Desert and met a curious little boy, the Little Prince. The Aviator passes on to the Girl the important life lessons he learned from the Little Prince.
Themes
Priorities in life; enjoying life and enjoying being a curious child; friendship; love; compassion; hope; growing up.
Violence
The Little Prince has some violence. For example, the Girl is trapped and restrained so that the villainous Businessman can turn her into ‘an essential grown-up’ in the ‘essentialising machine’. The Girl escapes and the machine snatches a nasty teacher instead. The teacher gets dragged inside the ‘essentialising factory’ and yells out in distress. His fate remains unclear as the gate to the factory shuts.
Sexual references
None noted.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
None noted.
Nudity and sexual activity
None noted.
Product placement
None noted.
Coarse language
There is some very mild coarse language in The Little Prince, including ‘darn it’.
Ideas to discuss with your children
The Little Prince is an animated French-Italian production, which takes some liberties with the original tale by telling it from the modern Girl’s perspective as she befriends one of the characters from the original story. Parents who know Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novella will remember that The Little Prince is in parts a very sad story, but the messages are still beautiful and powerful.
Highly artistic stop-motion animation and a powerful soundtrack make this movie a stimulating and aesthetic experience, likely to appeal to families with teenagers. But the movie’s emotional intensity and sad themes, including references to suicide, mean it’s unsuitable for young children. We recommend parental guidance for children aged 9-11 years.
These are the main messages from this movie:
- ‘One can only see rightly with the heart’.
- It’s important to enjoy and embrace life.
- You should never lose your child-like curiosity and imagination.
- True love and friendship outlast death.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:
- the importance of children’s play and imagination
- friendship
- love
- hope and hopefulness
- the true meaning of success.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about:
- the finite nature of life
- the inevitability of sad farewells
- the feeling that loved ones stay alive in our hearts and memories.