I traveled to South Carolina last week to attend my son's graduation from Basic Training. The day before graduation is Family Day. The soldiers are allowed to spend the day with their families, but they cannot leave the post. With 1,300 recruits graduating, the post quickly became a crowded place to be. After fighting traffic and crowds all morning, we sought shelter at the post theater for a couple of hours of air-conditioned "indoors" time. Unfortunately, the only movie showing was Leap!. In spite of the film being geared toward younger audiences, a fair number of soldiers (and their families) had the same idea. For six bucks, it wasn't a bad way to spend an afternoon with our newly minted soldier.
Leap! is an animated film that take place in France around 1886. The story centers on a young orphan, Felicie (Elle Fanning) and her young friend, Victor (Dane DeHaan). Felicie dreams of being a dancer, but she is stuck in the drudgery of a Brittany orphanage. In spite of her predicament, she manages to bring a ray of sunshine to the otherwise drab existence. With Victor's help, they escape by train to Paris. A combination of luck, timing and dishonesty bring about an opportunity for Felicie to fulfill her dreams. The rags-to-riches tale is an ill-conceived, cliched, hackneyed take on every princess story ever written.
I enjoyed the animation in Leap!. It was the redeeming quality for this film. The attention to detail gave the film a rich look that had depth for an animated film. The motion of the characters was particularly interesting given the subject matter. The story, however, was trite and contrived. The message seemed to be that "the end justifies the means," which I found to be disappointing. The characters were poorly developed and the dialogue was superficial. The narrative was predictable, but had some bizarre, contrived elements to it. In short, it was a hot mess. On the bright side, the theater was air conditioned and tickets were only six bucks on base.
Leap! was written and directed by Eric Summer. His work appears to be primarily French films. I do not recognize any of them. I'm surprised this film was bankrolled, and I'm really surprised they attracted the voice talent. The film cost 30 million dollars to produce and does not appear likely to break even, although it is possible they will make up the difference eventually. They are currently only a third of the way to even. I will probably avoid anything associated with Summer in the future. DeHaan has been getting quite a bit of work lately. I'm not sure what that is about, but he and Fanning are both known names. I was unimpressed with their performances as voice actors. The dialogue was weak to begin with, so I don't know how much of that to blame on the actors. But these characters simply failed to engage my imagination. They were flat and unappealing.
I would never have gone to see Leap! in the theaters under normal circumstances. Given the circumstances, I don't regret spending an afternoon with my son, who I hadn't seen in several months. He slept through most of the film. A moments reprieve from exhaustive training. This is probably not a film I would watch streaming for free, either. If you have young children, go for it. It is not a horrible film, it is just not that good. In terms of visual appeal, young viewers will probably like it. This is a hard film to rate because I have to consider all audiences. Young viewers who this film is geared towards, particularly young girls, are likely to enjoy it. I will barely recommend it. 5/10.