The original opus of French animation, “The King and the Mockingbird” is a fairytale set in a kingdom built into the towering spirals of an immense castle. Ruled over by a vain and heartless king, Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI (yes, that’s his name, and you’ll hear it a lot over the course of the movie), the kingdom is full of splendor, but hides a dark underbelly of cave-dwelling peasants and overbearing police. Now “The King and the Mockingbird” is finally getting an American release from Rialto Pictures and Studiocanal, allowing American animation lovers to finally catch the movie on the big screen.
'The King and the Mockingbird' Trailer
Directed by Paul Grimault from a script by poet Jacques Prévert, “The King and the Mockingbird” was finally completed in 1980 after decades as the unapproved and half-complete “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep,” originally released in 1952. “The King and the Mockingbird” became a landmark of animation despite its limited availability and production difficulties, influencing animation master Hayao Miyazaki and echoing into modern animated movies like Brad Bird’s “The Iron Giant.” It’s easy to see why, as “The King and the Mockingbird” not only features a lush look, dancing eccentric and fluid characters across architectural grandeur, but also a forward-looking futurism that bashes together ancient castles and magical paintings with rocket ships, giant robots, and other tech lunacies.
“The King and the Mockingbird” begins with the mockingbird, a jolly but bitter bird who lost his wife to the king’s hunting obsession. The mockingbird spends his days raising his four chicks and mocking the king: for his cross-eyes, his vanity, his secrecy, his poor accuracy with a rifle, and whatever else allows the mockingbird to guffaw. Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI is easy to loathe, with his perfect combination of pomposity and hyper-sensitivity that leads to him dropping artists down trap doors for the sin of capturing his likeness accurately. But the whimsy of “The King and the Mockingbird” keeps it light, with the king staying mostly sympathetic due to his overwhelming ineptness. His puffery is so easy to see through that even his most loyal underlings laugh at him.
The plot of “The King and the Mockingbird” begins when the king goes to sleep and his paintings come to life. Two painted figures, a chimney sweep and a shepherdess, run off to be together, only to be chased by the love-struck king. No, not the actual King Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI , but rather his latest portrait come to life. Throwing the real King Charles down his own trap door, the new king leads a band of cops on a chase spanning the tip-top of the kingdom and ending in the dark slums below, as the king smashes through walls while steering a giant robot after the fleeing lovebirds.
“The King and the Mockingbird” is endlessly inventive. Even the king’s throne transforms again and again, first a mere seat, but soon a roving bumper car or a jetski for traversing canals. The cops provide a lot of the comedy, as they coordinate en masse to drop nets, fly ludicrous machines, and even deploy bat-winged officers to chase down the shepherdess and the chimney sweep.
The problem in reviewing “The King and the Mockingbird” is not so much in recommending or praising it—It’s virtues are probably obvious in the embedded trailer—but in trying to imagine who this release best serves. If the trailer for “The King and the Mockingbird” excites you, please rush out to see it, assuming it gets a wider release than New York and LA. But it’s not really a movie I’d recommend for kids. For one, this new release retains the original French vocal track. And while having the original French in an eventual Blu-ray release of “The King and the Mockingbird” would be a necessity, part of me wishes this new theatrical run brought with it some big names and an English dub. I would love to see this rerelease pitched at mainstream audiences, rather than the cinema purists and animation fans that seem to be the current target.
“The King and the Mockingbird” is an animated classic and still holds wonders for a modern audience. You can catch it in theaters at the Film Society of Lincoln Center starting Nov. 21, and in Los Angeles beginning Dec. 19. Hopefully the planned national rollout will follow shortly after.
