Long Way North (Tout en haut du monde)

Dir: Rémi Chayé

2015

****

Rémi Chayé's Tout en haut du monde (Long Way North) took me by surprise somewhat. To be honest, I found the animation quite hard to watch to begin with and I really didn't get the contrast between the detailed background and flat and rather crude computer animated foreground characters. However, after around ten minutes my eyes and brain adjusted to it and actually started to appreciate it, it is certainly unlike any animation I've seen before. I think I feared that this was a low budget, poor quality cartoon. I didn't know much about it and not much is written about it online, so I approached it with apprehension, so I suppose my low expectations only heightened my thrill when I began to really enjoy it. The English dubbing is awful and the sound is particularly bad. I didn't think much of the use of current popular music in a story that takes place in 1882 but thanks to the wonderful story and animation I was able to see beyond this and I certainly don't blame the French/Dutch production teams for what foreign distributors have done to it. The story starts in Saint Petersburg in 1882. Fifteen year old Sasha, the daughter of wealthy aristocratic parents, tries her best to act the young lady in her world of high-society but can't help but get distracted by the memory of her Grandfather who set off to discover the North Pole and has never returned. After a disastrous incident involving the Tsar and her first ball, Sasha runs away from home with the idea of saving her families honour, the loss of her grandfather and his ship bringing shame on them and the family name. With the earnings her grandfather gave her as her only source of currency, Sasha secures her place on a working arctic ship and goes in search for her beloved grandfather. It is a cracking adventure, full of some spectacular surprises and a particularly wonderful scene that really did take my breath away. It won the audience award at 2015's Annecy International Animated Film Festival which is quite the achievement, especially when the brilliant April and the Extraordinary World won the critics’ choice. It is hugely overlooked but mainly because few people have heard of it, I thought it was quite wonderful and I would urge anyone who has seen it to watch it immediately as I don't believe there will be many people who won't simply love it.