The Red Turtle

I don't particularly like animated films, but The Red Turtle both charmed and moved me. The story about the eternal cycle of life is very impressive, the animation is very good, and the music underscores the atmosphere wonderfully. For a moment, I found myself in another world... And everything I witnessed there was extremely pleasing to my senses. (04/26/2020)

The Red Turtle is a captivating magical-realistic robinsonade with an environmental subtext. It is a concise, stylistically pure film packed with symbolic imagery and based on the idea of the interconnectedness of the individual components of the living world. For communication with the viewer, the film primarily uses images that are both concrete and symbolic, and gradually reveals to us the unique yet universally comprehensible inner logic of the fictional world. Thanks to the cyclical repetition of situations, we get the impression of the organic interconnectedness of everything. If something happens to an island, then naturally something must happen to the people who inhabit it. Cleansing simplicity is a feature not only of the story, but also of the visual stylisation, which may remind comic-book readers of the work of artists such as Jean “Moebius” Giraud and Georges “Hergé” Remi. Thanks to its unusually beautiful animation, the film is enchanting even at moments when nothing particularly dramatic or lyrical is happening. At the same time, the artistic aspect, which straddles the line between magical and realistic, leads us to the same realisation as the film’s plot – we don’t have to understand the natural order, but we should respect it. 80% (12/09/2016)

The fact that it's possible to make an eighty-minute film without words is quite a feat in itself. But for it to be a film that is so visually pleasing, where French and Japanese influences are beautifully displayed, that's just pure artistry. The animation is absolutely beautiful. You don't have to understand this film, but it can still captivate you with its concept and story. (01/04/2017)

The story begins with a storm – an abandoned castaway wakes up on a desert island and immediately starts thinking of ways to escape this desolation and return to civilization. Try as he might, he fails. Especially when he discovers the cause of his misfortune, he cannot suppress his anger and despair and does something he will later regret. But that's part of life. His loneliness, however, allows him to know himself, and in the end, fate allows him to understand the meaning of love and parenthood, and to know the moment when the old generation should step back and leave the world to the young. The\\is entire magical story about the cycle of life is beautified with ordinary colors. The author doesn't overdo it with color even though he could. He remains spare and even manages to highlight the important things without adding to their saturation. The film then gives the impression that there is no more striking color in his world than red. And perhaps that's just as well, because here red is a symbol of love. Without it, the world might as well be black and white. Still, one can see that every stroke is painted with care and the animation cannot be faulted. It basically tells the story of an ordinary everyday life, albeit in an unusual place, so it suits the story very well. However, the same cannot be said of the music. Of course, it was breathtaking like any music recorded by a symphony orchestra, yet I think it almost spoiled the impression in some scenes, as it took over the whole narrative and moved it somewhere it shouldn't have been according to the scene that was just taking place. Still, I don't think anyone would be disappointed if they just listened to the notes that were sounded. Aside from the animation and the music, there is one last important thing left that a film is not a film without – the script. The Red Turtle is de Wit's feature debut, which he has been working on for almost a decade. It is certainly ambiguous. If you're a film critic, you may find yourself rooting around in the film and come away satisfied. If you're a tired parent who goes to the movies with your child instead of catching up on sleep at home, the story is more likely to fail to engage you. On the other hand, it will entertain your little one, because she could and will enjoy this unusual film. So don't be afraid to go see it with your kids, don't be afraid to look for everything it conceals, because this movie can satisfy any age group. The only thing that matters is whether you can embrace this dreamy realistic fairy tale and not ask "why?". A strong 3 stars. (11/18/2016)

At first sight, this is a very nice philosophical animated movie, which started off quite shy and then about half an hour later, I started getting lost and started watching a sequence of good-looking and rather simple shots that started repeating themselves. It would have been great as a shorter, 30-minute film. But as a feature film, it is a bit lengthy. (12/17/2018)