Now streaming on Netflix, a behind the scenes glimpse at “The Little Prince” released on Tuesday shows how the film uniquely fused together four different types of animation: hand drawn 2D animation, CG animation, paper cutout animation and stop-motion animation.
The film flawlessly weaves together CG animation to show the world of the main character, The Little Girl, while stop-motion animation was used to bring the pages of the beloved book to life.
Directed by Mark Osborne, “The Little Prince” was inspired by the popular French novella “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The story resonated with people of all ages because of its universal themes of friendship, love and loss. The film is voiced by an all star cast including Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, James Franco, Marion Cotillard and Mackenzie Foy.
“Some of my favorite shots in the film took up to nine days to animate,” Osborne said in the video. “Computer animation really helped us to create a groundbreaking, believable world. I felt that stop motion was the best way to tap into that childlike universe.”
“The Little Prince,” tells the story of a little girl and her overly organized, type-A mother who move in next door to an old aviator who lives in a ramshackle house. The aviator, voiced by Bridges, tells (and draws) the story of his encounter with the little prince, and that encounter with the story in Saint-Exupery’s book changes the life of the little girl.
Netflix is campaigning the film in all categories including Best Animated Feature, Best Production Design (Lou Romano and Alexander Juhasz), Best Adapted Screenplay (Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti) and Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer and Richard Harvey).