Movie Review

An endearing “feel good” movie for anyone who ever wanted to be a ballerina when they grew up.

Which of course, my little one does! She’s all about tippy toes and tutus, so she was very excited to see this one. Unfortunately, it had a very short theater run so we didn’t get a chance to see it on the big screen. We finally got to rent it a few days ago.

Leap/ Ballerina (Release Date: August 2017)

An orphan girl dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera house.

Starring:  Elle Fanning, Dane DeHaan, and Carly Rae Jepsen

Director:   Eric Summer

Rating/ Runtime: PG 1hr 29

My Thoughts…

I always like to let my daughter give her review of these movies first. Here is what she had to say about it. “I liked it and I really loved the dancing but my favouritest part was when the boy rescued her from the evil.” Ha! I will let you try to make sense out of that! You’ll have to watch it to see what the “evil” was.

My first impression of this film, was that it was very artistic for an animated, family movie which given the subject matter, makes sense. I also learned that this movie was a joint project between France and Canada, which I thought was really cool. This is not a big budget Disney type flick. More like a labour of love designed to showcase “the Dance” and to teach children and adults alike, that it is possible to achieve your dreams no matter how impossible they seem. Not an original concept, but always an important one.

Felicie is a charming character and her best friend Victor is adorable in his pursuit to become a world-famous inventor. The time period is very interesting as well. The time when both the Eifel Tower and The Statue of Liberty were being constructed.

We really enjoyed this movie and even if your child isn’t obsessed with ballet like mine is, I think you will still find this movie really charming.

Rating… B

 

IMDb