There are no dialogues in Alê Abreu’s animated Boy and the World . All conversations sound like gibberish (in fact it’s Portuguese backwards). Add to that, the Brazilian writer-director’s animation isn’t exactly conventional. Instead, the 2014 film (nominated at the 88th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature) very easily conveys a poignant tale of life and family. We’re a little late to the party, four years to be exact, but Abreu’s hand-drawn technique pushes the boundaries of what an animated feature can accomplish. At first blush, it might appear to be rudimentary. The film is anything but that. Especially when the animator starts to fill the screen with wonder and colour. What first appears to be a restrained oeuvre expands to suit an overflowing cup. That’s how Boy and the World lassos in its audience.
- Director: Alê Abreu
- Cast: Voiced by Vinicius Garcia, Felipe Zilse, Alê Abreu, Lu Horta, Marco Aurélio Campos, Cassius Romero
- Story line: A young boy leaves home to follow his father in the big city much to his disappointment
At the centre of the film is a little unnamed boy with a button head and slits for eyes along with twig-like limbs. He’s living the dream in his rural hometown, running after colours and sounds. As he’s giggling onscreen, chasing butterflies and hugging animals, enthused with just a blue bucket, feel your heart unwittingly swell in size.
Like the adage, nothing lasts forever, the little boy’s world comes crashing down when his loving family is torn apart. His father leaves home to find work and the boy runs away too in the hope of bringing his world together.
While we’re privy not only to the child’s struggles, reality rears its ugly head through the truth of life. Abreu’s film may be for children, but it will resonate with adults with an equal ferocity. For instance, his portrayal of Brazil’s (and in turn any developing country’s) changing landscape with machines replacing man, and the destruction of nature is haunting. There’s even a live-footage sequence thrown in for added measure and boy does it hit home.
It’s very easy to forget that the protagonist is merely two-dimensional along with the rest of Abreu’s created universe, including his depressing yet buzzing metropolis. But Boy and the World becomes a welcoming receptacle that sucks in the most apathetic of viewers. You’ll end up lost in the film’s mastery: everything from grim industrialisation, traffic jams and menacing villains to vibrant pastures, psychedelic folk parades and Technicolor emotions. All of which is accentuated by a brilliant soundscape by Ruben Feffer Gustavo Kurlaz, which works in tandem with Abreu to be as effective in the face of no verbal communication. The Boy and the World is melancholic with a no-frills story but its exuberant execution leaves a long lasting mark on its audience.
Published - February 09, 2018 08:14 pm IST
