Directed by:
Laurent TirardCinematography:
Denis RoudenComposer:
Klaus BadeltCast:
Maxime Godart, Valérie Lemercier, Kad Merad, Sandrine Kiberlain, François-Xavier Demaison, Michel Duchaussoy, Daniel Prévost, Michel Galabru (more)Plots(1)
Nicholas leads a peaceful existence. He has parents who love him, a gang of terrific friends to play with, and no desire for anything to change. But one day, Nicholas overhears a conversation between his parents which leads him to believe that his mother is expecting a child. He panics and imagines the worst: a little brother! Nicholas’ parents will no longer have time for him. Maybe they'll even abandon him in the forest like Little Tom Thumb. To escape this disastrous fate, Nicholas embarks on a full-scale campaign to make himself indispensable to his parents. But by trying too hard, he only piles up blunder after blunder and provokes their anger. Desperate, he decides to change tactics. After all, it's not up to him to leave. He was there first. It's the baby who should disappear. Nicholas and his pals come up with all kinds of plans - plans that lead them into increasingly zany misadventures. Unaware of the risks they are taking, the kids wreak havoc throughout the entire town. But just when they think they've found the solution, Nicholas sees a friend whose mother has just had a baby and who describes all the positive aspects of being a big brother. It doesn't sound too bad at all to Nicholas. Transformed, he runs home and tells his parents he's delighted to have a little brother. When they explain that there's been a misunderstanding, he starts to cry and reproaches them for never wanting to make him happy. But one last surprise awaits our hero... (Wild Bunch Distribution)
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Reviews (6)
There was a time when I didn't go anywhere without a book about "Little Nicholas" in my hand. Those days are long gone, but Little Nicolas still has a special place in my heart. And so I didn't expect much from the adaptation. But I was mistaken. The adaptation is both unusually successful and, at the same time, unique. A pure embodiment of non-infantile family entertainment, which will often get more laughs from adults than from kids. Moreover, Nicholas’ misadventures in both forms have the special power to return you to your childhood, which is something that very few books and even fewer movies are able to do. And the fact that the film doesn’t compare to the original is not so relevant in this case, because I didn't even realize it until loooooong after I left the movie theater and had wiped away the last tears of laughter.
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It works as an ordinary children's film, but hardly as a treatment of the infinitely poetic and kind world of the Goscinny-Sempé duo. It is too bad that the creators are stuck halfway between stylization and civility. In this way, the impression persists that Little Nicholas would function much better as a cartoon character... The French essentially failed to do with the children's storyline what the creators of the Czech series We Were a Handful were able to do – to find a balance between the infantile and film language. In any case, Little Nicholas’s inconveniences don’t tend to offend, not even someone who grew up watching the show and is still one of its uncritical fans.
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A great transfer of legendary books to the silver screen. The child and adult actors are well chosen and the familiar scenes are irresistible in their performances, the script is beautifully childish and naive and the whole film, stylized in attractive retro colors, looks nice... Little Nicholas was as good as it could be, and it couldn't have been any better. It will be enjoyed by young and old alike, and that's the way it should be. I give major bonus points for the great music by Klaus Badelt.
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A beautiful example of how it is possible, even in the present day, to create a comedy that will have the spirit of perhaps the first half of the last century, but at the same time will be able to thoroughly entertain contemporary audiences, regardless of the viewer's age. "Mikuláš's Mishaps", which are based on a classic work of French modern literature, are a comedy suitable for essentially all generations, but especially for those who want to have a good laugh.
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The stories of Little Nicholas are simply magical. When it comes from René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé, it is, of course, an essential part of popular children's reading to be continued. Little Nicholas lives out his troubles in the orderly 1950s. His mom and dad deal with their problems in a completely separate adult world, and Nicholas and his classmates live somewhere else entirely, and that's where all the magic comes from. Laurent Tirard's film anchored my memories of reading these stories, reviving and making me laugh again in similar places to the book. I am absolutely satisfied. I hope that Nicholas and the other great characters will never be forgotten.
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