Kirikou and the Sorceress

In a West African village, a child who speaks before he is born and walks the moment he arrives sets out to deal with Karaba, the sorceress draining the village. He is tiny and unarmed; the only thing he has is that he asks questions. Michel Ocelot wrote and directed. The source is West African folk tale, particularly the story of a prodigious child called Izé Gani, which Ocelot altered substantially. The largest change is at the end. In place of the original's violence Ocelot put an idea of healing: Kirikou discovers that Karaba's cruelty comes from a poisoned thorn driven into her back by the men who attacked her, and he removes it. The visual language draws on Henri Rousseau's paintings and ancient Egyptian art. The production began with a shadow-theatre approach before moving to coloured line drawing for practical reasons. Distribution in English-speaking markets was a problem. Because of the characters' nudity, Universal Pictures demanded pants and bras be added; the American distributor bypassed the ratings board entirely instead. The BBC called theatrical distribution impossible, and wide release only came in 2003 after a British Animation Award revived interest. It won the Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 1999. In France it took around 3.8 million euros on a 25 million franc budget, and the industry credits it with reviving investment in French animation. Who it is for: viewers looking for family animation and anyone curious about the non-Disney strand of European animation. Who it is not for: viewers for whom the nudity is a problem. The film does it deliberately and refused to change it.