Fantastic!

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

A Brilliant Conflict

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

As a fond lover of the TV series I was intrigued by how this would turn out. Madeline:Lost in Paris is not bad, but also not too great. It is well animated, with lovely Parisian backgrounds and colourful drawings. The characters especially Madeline and Miss Clavel are appealing, and Madame Lacroque is a convincing enough villainess. Also the voice acting from Christopher Plummer, Lauren Bacall, Jason Alexander, Andrea Libman and Stevie Vallance is absolutely top-notch, particularly Bacall who seems to be having a ball with this film. However, some of the story is rushed, and the songs with some rather over-simplistic lyrics are forgettable at best. And maybe I am alone in this notion but the film did have some disappointingly bland dialogue. On the whole though, this is not bad. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Based on characters and settings created by author/artist Ludwig Bemelmans in 1939 in his book "Madeline", this is a wonderful 75-minute musical feature for very young children. Our two-year-old girl loves it even though the plot is sophisticated enough to please a ten-year-old. The voice talents of Christopher Plummer (as the narrator) and Lauren Bacall are superb. The characters speak and sing with charming Parisian accents, often breaking into a little genuine French. Like the book, the narration is in verse. The drawings are certainly cleaner than Bemelmans' originals yet retain their stylized charm, including the famous scenes of actual places throughout Paris and the "twelve little girls in two straight lines" led by Miss Clavel.The story is a new one created 60 years after the book's publication. Its central theme is "family". Unlike the book, here little Madeline seems to be an orphan and longs for a family of her own. Hoping to find long-lost relatives she undergoes a dangerous adventure in which she learns that some of the essential attributes of family may be found among friends with whom one breaks bread. The resourceful and brave Madeline is helped by old friends and helps new ones in turn.Do not confuse this film with a series of 20-minute cartoons made about a decade earlier. Although also narrated by Christopher Plummer, these shorts are cheap Saturday-morning affairs without merit in plot, animation or music. By contrast "Madeline Lost in Paris" is a keeper.

That Madeline is an orphan is a popular misconception, added to by the plot of this movie; she lives in a boarding school, not an orphanage.This is a cute cartoon, and truly is appropriate for the whole family, unlike films like _Shrek_ that contain inappropriate humor. The music and animation are very simple, but have a nice, relaxing effect. Too many children's shows use frenetic imagery and postmodern art that encourages hyperactivity. This is My main critique is that, while the story gets different in the last part, the beginning is a very obvious rip-off of _Annie_. There are several other clichés throughout the story, but it still has enough originality to make it worthwhile.

Is this movie represented by the band called Lost in Paris out of Philadelphia at www. lost in Paris band. com (no spaces)I was curious because I do not think there is a very close connection, but perhaps one of the band members is somehow related to the director of the film. In fact I believe I did hear one of the members saying something about that, and that is how they came up with the name. Perhaps they were trying to promote familiarity with the movie title in artistic circles.Still it seems a very remote possibility as the music performed is not original, but rather cover songs