Collaboration between the directors of 'Persepolis' and 'Zombillenium' results in a children's film with many strange characters, wrapped in a technically attractive, but not very original package.
One chaotic morning, while his mother struggles to concentrate on a work call and his father botches breakfast, Angelo (voiced by Dario Hardouin Spurio), a boisterous young boy with a distinctly rectangular head and an even bigger imagination, learns that his grandmother (Yolande Moreau) has fallen ill with little chance of recovery. The life-changing news spawns the innocent French animated film “Into the Wonderwoods,” which Oscar-nominated artist and filmmaker Vincent Paronnaud (“Persepolis”) adapted from his own 2016 comic book (published under the nom de plume Winshluss) and co-directed with Alexis Ducord (“Zombillenium”).
The adult nature of the inciting incident recalls the heartbreaking Swiss stop-motion gem “My Life as a Zucchini,” but “Wonderwoods” soon arrives at a familiar, if still charming, locale that’s more decidedly family-friendly than tonally daring. To see Grandma before it’s too late, the family—Angelo has two siblings, one older and the other a baby—travels by car, but during a pit stop, the protagonist wanders off and his parents set off without him. Left behind, Angelo ventures into a wooded area lured by a glimmering entity. He’ll have to make some new friends to get back on track.
One notable detail is that the clan’s car has an advanced AI assistant, whose humanoid head appears as a floating hologram on the dashboard, but Angelo has no cell phone or other device. It’s a strategic decision by Paronnaud, since the accident could otherwise have been solved with a quick phone call. However, it wouldn’t seem far-fetched that an American child of his age would have a tablet or cell phone at his disposal. The choice of story could be a response to the fact that the French government banned the use of cell phones in schools in 2018. Perhaps Angelo’s parents have even stricter rules about technology – after all, the villain’s father expresses an aversion to AI everywhere.
