SPOILERS!!!! Little Prince Questions Answered

This is the post contains lots of spoilers, but not necessarily a plot synopsis. I just want to address some of the tougher plot points of the film in relation to Paramount, the movie's original producer.

The Little Prince was of course marketed as a family film. It's main character is a little Girl, the animation is fanciful, the music adorable... I mean, it's based off of a children's book for crying out-loud. But it is unique in how it handles loss. Frighteningly so.

The dark undertones of death begin in the story of the Prince, who left his one true love, his Rose, to go out on his own adventure. (Note: none of the characters in this movie are named, they only have titles). He meets quite a few quirky characters in his journeys. But home-sickness starts to eat at him, and on his way back, he meets the Aviator (important character alert!) in the Sahara Desert.

At this point its safe to assume that although the two are on earth, the same rules of physics, logic, nature, supernature, what-have-you, do not apply. It is a whimsical world. But the next moment is chilling nonetheless. There is a Snake in the dessert, and he promises the Prince that he can send him back to his Rose in an instant. The method the Snake implies as he coils his body around the apprehensive young Prince... is death.

The Snake does not directly say anything about killing the Prince. But it is clearly what he means. The Prince even mentions off-handedly to the Aviator that "this body is only a shell". Then the Aviator watches as, in the distance, the Prince is bitten by the snake and falls to the ground.

Now the way the story is told, it would seem that this moment was meant to be happy. The Aviator believed in the Prince, and the Prince believed in the snake. It's implied that he went back to be with his Rose. But there are too many eerie parallels between that scene and suicide for comfort, particularly for Paramount. Perhaps test audiences were upset about it.

But the Little Prince did not "die", at least not in the traditional sense. And as the theme of memory comes to play more of an important role in the story, death/loss becomes less significant of an issue. Memory, the film suggests, sort of cheats death; if we remember those who are gone, they never truly leave us. The little Girl (who is reading and hearing about this story from the Aviator many years later) learns this throughout the film as she struggles with her own losses. It's intertwined throughout the film.

It's a beautiful way of looking at death and at loss, especially from the perspective of a child. But in this movie it is blunt, raw, and thought-provoking. I certainly have not done it justice in that little anecdote. But the point I'm trying to make is that it is not a movie a parent can just turn on in the afternoon to kill a couple hours with their young kids. At least, not at first it isn't. Some tough issues may have to be addressed.

But as I mentioned in my first review, I believe it's all worth it. Besides, death/loss is only one piece of the film as a whole. It has a lot more to say about what it means to be a child, about what it means to be an adult, and what it means to go against the grain and be yourself. It addresses a culture that is obsessed with being "necessary" and focusses on what it truly means to grow up. Over-all it is fun and adventurous. The ending left me smiling with only a slightly bitter-sweet left-over tear. Paramount, I'm sad to say, has really dropped the ball with this one. They missed out on producing a masterpiece.