Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

A French animated film that came out of a music project. Jack is born in Edinburgh on the coldest day of the year. His heart is frozen and he cannot live. The woman who delivers him fits a cuckoo clock into his chest and the child survives. But there are three rules: never touch the hands of the clock, never lose your temper, and above all never fall in love. Years later Jack sees a girl singing in the street and the third rule breaks. He goes to Spain to find her. The source is an album by the French band Dionysos and a novel by its singer Mathias Malzieu. Malzieu is one of the directors and voices Jack. So the narrative is an extension of a music project; the songs work inside the story and the music carries the telling. The visual design sits close to the gothic fairy tale: elongated figures, dark colours and mechanical objects. Georges Méliès appears as a character. A different sort of choice for anyone who likes animation that also addresses adults, and musical storytelling. For a viewer expecting a children's film, the register is dark and the ending does not arrive anywhere sweet.