Léo, the fabulous story of Leonardo da Vinci: fun and educational animation (review)
With the help of the co-writer of Ratatouille, Pierre-Luc Granjon revisits the figure of the artist-inventor with great inventiveness in writing and animation techniques.
2023 was populated with such summits of all kinds of animation coming from the four corners of the planet (from Mars express has My robot friend Passing by Linda wants chicken!, Suzume or Blind willows, sleeping woman), that the bar of our expectations has necessarily gone up a notch. But Leo, the fabulous story of Leonardo da Vinci has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of by the comparison.
A crazy charm and a permanent inventiveness dominate this stop motion and 2D portrait of Leonardo da Vinci (at the time when, excommunicated by the Pope because he dissected corpses to understand the mysteries of the human soul, he left Italy to join the court of François I (who asks him to imagine and build a sort of ideal city) and his thousand lives (painter, sculptor, scientist, architect, philosopher, anatomist, musician, writer, etc.) symbolized on the screen by a cleverly orchestrated interplay between different animation styles.
In duo with the co-screenwriter of Ratatouille, Jim Capobianco, Pierre-Luc Granjon (at the helm of his first feature film) tells the story of an ambitious and brilliant inventor confronted with the forces of reason dictated by a King hungry for greatness but refusing to allow these extravagances to make him a subject of mockery. His film, shot at the French studio Foliascope, is obviously aimed at young people but without being stupid, thanks to a mischievous sense of pedagogy. And the older ones will not shy away from their pleasure.
By Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon. Duration 1h37. Released January 31, 2024
