y?

U

Directed by Grégoire Solotareff, Serge Elissalde
Screenplay by Grégoire Solotareff
Starring Isild Le Besco, Vahina Giocante, Bernadette Lafont, Sanseverino, Guillaume Gallienne

Reviewed by Matthew C. Brown
September 11 2006

U is an animated film from France about a female rat-thingie who pricks her finger one day and thereby summons an adorable little unicorn to play with. The unicorn is named U. When the young rat-thingie becomes a teeanged rat-thingie with a long lean body and boobs and buns - we're in Olive Oil territory here - she falls in love and U has to go away.

That's about the whole story of U. Was it worth making a feature length (almost... the film is 72 minutes long) animated film out of? Not really. The art is absolutely gorgeous and the character design is lovely, but there's not much to occupy them with besides hanging around, flowing from place to place, and occasionally dancing or smooching. Vahina Giaconte, who is lovely beyond measure, gives voice to U, who is also lovely beyond measure and would, indeed, make a fine imaginary companion for any youngster. But I'm still not convinced she's a movie.

The result is a lot of drag in and around the themes which are (somewhat) mature for a kids' film. The rat-thingie falls in love with a cat-thingie and they kiss on the beach and do a bit of groping to boot, and there's a scene where a matronly woman serves boob-shaped cakes to a rat-thingie suitor, so this might raise a few honest questions from the youngsters if taken to see it.

On a more basic level, though, my principal concern would be that this probably just wouldn't appeal to young people. There isn't enough plot or characterization. Key scenes involve conversations and/or kissing. It looks nice, but it's not really what I'd call "fun," any more than a Teletubbies cartoon would be.