By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Eric Summer
Cast (Voice): Elle Fanning, Nat Wolff, Carly Rae Jepsen, Maddie Ziegler, Elana Dunkelman, Joe Sheridan, Tamir Kapelian, Terrence Scammell, Kate McKinnon and Mel Brooks.
Rating: Average.
Another Animated Feature Film comes this summer and is “Leap!”, a French Canadian Production that had an interesting concept but the problem was the resolution.
The movie tells the story of Felicie (Elle Fanning) an orphan who dreams to become a ballerina.
One night Félicie escapes the orphanage with her best friend Victor (Nat Wolff) who dreams to be an inventor. Together they flee to Paris.
Félicie see´s the Grand Opera House and is impressed. Her desire to become a singer grows stronger and is determined to enter.
She will reach her goal with the help of Victor and she will meet Odette (Carly Rae Jepsen), a once ballerina who will help Felicie on making her dream come true.
Like I mentioned before, “Leap!” is a very well made film and the quality of the animation did surprise me.
The thing that I felt that needed more work was the screenplay written by Eric Summer, who directed the film, Carol Noble and Laurent Zeitoun. The major problem that I saw was the film was to predictable and in the climax in the scene, another one was added that didn´t make any sense.
I understand that this movie´s original version is a French film, which unfortunately I didn´t see but at this point it doesn´t matter.
The movie reached in a certain way it´s purpose but in the third act when the character of Felicie reaches her goal that´s where the movie should have ended.
The cast who shared their voices for “Leap!” did a decent job, specially Elle Fanning who I affirm that this 2017 has been a remarkable year for her, specially in movies like “The Beguiled” where she can probably score an Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Mel Brooks voice as the Luteau the caretaker of the Orphanage is a really good one and is a blessing hearing this man´s voice in the big screen.
Normally when we speak about animated movies, the thing that comes to our minds and we related this genre is to either Disney or Pixar movies.
Movies like “Leap!” proved that Europeans also can do very good quality work in this genre but again the thing that lacked was story wise.
The message of the film of not giving up in your dreams and always believe in hope was very well executed and is another thing that I did like of this film.
Another factor that I observed in “Leap!” was that again it was focused in children and the adult part was taken. This is something that you cannot allow in a movie from this genre and normally this is a tendency that will lead to ultimate failure.
I feel if more time would have been invested in storytelling, I believe that we would have seen a different film since it was a very good concept.
With that being said, I give “Leap!” a slight recommendation. If you take you children, they are going to love but for adults please be patient since the movie can have the tendency of being repetitive.