The Red Turtle – a confusing piece of fine animation

I was made aware of The Red Turtle, Michaël Dudok de Wit’s 2016’s award-winning animation co-production with Studio Ghibli and others, when binge watching Mark Kermode and Steve Mayo’s YouTube film reviews last week.

The general tone was one of a rave – and I instantly put it on my ‘must see’ list.

A man is washed up on an uninhabited island. He makes three attempts to escape on hand-built rafts, but at every turn, is thwarted by a giant turtle.

After the third attempt, he seeks revenge on the turtle, with unexpected results.

Well. I’ve seen it now and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s beautifully animated, but it took me two thirds in to it to really have a ‘feel’ for this fairytale. And that is what it is – a fairytale.

There are many things that work: as said, the animation itself is beautiful; 2D and 3D complimenting each other perfectly. The score from Laurent Perez del Mar is very good. It is essentially a non-verbal film, so no voice talent required.

Is it an eco-film, for instance? Not entirely sure.

I may have to watch it again, because I’m really not quite sure what to make of it, and yet ...