benji

★★★

This post is my entry for this months IndieWeb Movie Club hosted by Mark Sutherland. Sometime in 2008, I bought a Nintendo DS Lite. I don't remember what games I bought for it when I first got it, but one of the games I got soon after was Professor Layton and the Curious Village. The Professor Layton series are puzzle point-and-click adventure games with a really fun story, characters, and music. There was a lot that drew me to the series but one of the things I liked the most was how unique the art was. I remember looking into it at the time and some of the media with similar art styles that were brought to my attention were the comics The Adventures of Tintin and Le bibendum céleste as well as this film. For whatever reason, I didn't watch this film at that time. I'm kinda happy I didn't as I don't think I would've appreciated it then as much as I did now. There's a lot of ways to read this movie, but I was very pulled in by just how loving and caring the grandmother character, Madame Souza, was. Raising a kid is hard work, but putting the love and dedication in trying to find ways to cheer them up, or paying attention to what little reactions they have to their interests goes a long way. It doesn't end there as she also helps him with his training, inventing all sorts of interesting contraptions to make sure he's the best athlete he can be, as well as going along with him for the actual competitions. And once he gets kidnapped, she goes to incredible lengths to get him back. Everything that happened post-kidnapping was like four movies rolled into one. I don't think I can even do it justice by explaining it so I'll just skip to the end. It is amazing that the films runtime is only 81 mins though. The last scene was a little heartbreaking because we see a much older Champion as he calls out to let his grandmother know the film has ended. I believe we are meant to take this as he's old and alone now. I choose to believe that it's not that much further into the future and that he's calling out to her in a different room. I started writing some notes for this post as the credits rolled and was surprised to find out there was a post-credits scene. I'm not sure if this was available for all depending on which version of the film you caught, and it's just a quick second, but it's a funny callback joke which this film does so well so it's worth a watch. I think this is a brilliant film which has to be watched to be fully appreciated. It probably needs a few rewatches to catch all the little details scattered throughout the film. But if you watch one thing, here's a short clip of one of my favorite scenes from the movie. It shows the first look we get as we enter the city of Belleville, about 30 mins into the film. Pan shot of Belleville Thanks Mark for choosing this movie.