Un monstre à Paris

Kown as "A monster in Paris" is a french 3D animation movie directed by Bibo Bergeron and presented the 12 of October 2011 in Belgium. The movie is set Paris in the year 1910 and centered on a young and beautiful singer that protects the monster that's terroriced the city after an accident in the laboratory of a mad scientist. The original cast are Mathieu Chedid (as Francoeur), Vanessa Paradis (as Lucille) and Gad Elmaleh (as Raoul). As I don't know french I watched it with the english cast that has Sean Lennon in the role of Francoeur, Catherine O'Hara as Lucille.

I cannot recomend this movie enough! The animation is very beautiful, the music is fantastic and the script is both funny and beautiful. It's not a very long movie and the characters are not only well animated, but round and full.

The background idea is a reinterpretation of the famous "The Phantom of the Opera", made into movie several times. The references to this story are both subtle and bold: for example the fact that Lucille wears a set of white wings while singing and called in a few ocasions "angel", is a plain hint towards the line 'angel of music' that's frequently used to refer to Christine Daae - the Phantom of the Operas main character

 A Monster in Paris hints graciously towards the 1943 adaptation by giving the main character two suitors and making one of them a Police Chief. Another hint towards this movie is the mask that Francoeur wears in several occasions.

Like those we can find a lot of hints, and if you're a fan of the Phantom of the Opera, you can find in it an incentive for watching this original reinterpretation.

Another good point for watching A Monster in Paris is the music. The singing cast has an amaicing and sweet voice. The song "Le Seine" can be found in Youtube and is the central piece of the movie. As for the instrumental music,  the best piece can be found towards the ending, in the Eiffel Tower sequence.

The creation of the characters is very well done also. Not only the main characters have a full plot, but also those sidecharacters that are often neglectd in animation movies. They all have their flaws and interests, neither the main characters are presented as perfect. For example Raoul has an allergy towards feathers that's actually not really important for the plot developement, but gives place for a few funny scenes and presents the character as a normal guy in love with a normal woman.

It's also nice the little news report with which the movie starts. I don't know if it's real or made to fit the movie, but's really interesting, and beautifully interlaced with the whole story.

So I think that would be all. As I said before, I can only recomed this movie and remind you that even though it's animation it's not only for children, but can be enjoyed by everyone.