Michaël Dudok de Wit trusts a few drawn lines to make human effort matter. His patient, largely wordless animation can be deeply affecting, though The Red Turtle sometimes adds music where the pictures have already done enough.
Fi1m perspective
In The Red Turtle (2016), a stranded man keeps trying to leave his island while the crabs get on with their own business. Dudok de Wit gives those small creatures time on screen without making the man's predicament seem trivial. The spare drawing leaves him looking poorly equipped for a sea that has weight and changing moods. We were anxious watching his repeated attempts to escape because the animation makes the effort clear and the water dangerous. It is a fine, moving film that earns its unhurried pace.
His economical line developed through shorts, from Tom Sweep (1992) to The Monk and the Fish (1994) and Father and Daughter (2000). The last of these explores longing and time, concerns that suit his habit of telling simple emotional stories with few words. In The Aroma of Tea (2006), he used tea as his medium, taking his interest in drawing in another direction. The Red Turtle was his first feature, a co-production with Studio Ghibli that kept his reliance on visual storytelling.
Céline Kélépikis’s editing gives the man's repeated efforts time to establish his determination, then lets us feel the frustration of seeing them fail. She also leaves room for the small movements of the island's creatures. Light changes the feel of the place, and colour stops the water becoming a flat expanse whose only purpose is to be crossed. Dudok de Wit makes the island worth watching even while the man is intent on getting away from it.
The music occasionally pushes too hard, encouraging feelings that the drawings have already earned. We would prefer less of it, particularly from a director who gets so much out of a small movement. Nor does the 81-minute running time guarantee an easy family evening if the initial predicament has not caught everyone's attention. Start with The Red Turtle, but choose an evening when nobody needs the characters to keep talking.
Biography
Michaël Dudok de Wit (also credited as Michael Dudok de Wit) is a Dutch animator, director and illustrator based in London. He was born on 15 July 1953 in Abcoude, Netherlands. After studying at the Geneva School of Fine Arts, he graduated in 1978 from the West Surrey College of Art & Design with his first film The Interview.
Dudok de Wit is known for his short animated films The Monk and the Fish (1994), which received an Academy Award nomination and a César Award, and Father and Daughter (2000), which won an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. His feature film The Red Turtle (2016), for which he served as director and co-writer of the screenplay, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He has also directed the short The Aroma of Tea (2006) and writes and illustrates children's books.
