Calamity

Rémi Chayé's 2020 French animation is about the childhood of Martha Jane Cannary. She is with a wagon train heading west in 1863, and when her father is injured she has to learn to drive the family wagon and look after the horses. For that she puts on trousers and cuts her hair; the adults in the convoy take it as a scandal and, when she is accused, she has to leave the group. What follows is the story of a child travelling alone. The film does not construct the legend of Calamity Jane; it shows where the exaggerations later told about her might have come from. The design uses flat areas of colour without outlines, drawing the landscape in wide empty spaces, and that style gives the film its identity. It won the prize for best feature at Annecy. Who it's for: viewers who like hand-drawn animation and westerns. Who it's not for: anyone expecting sustained action; the film moves calmly.