Tales of the Night

A high-concept animated feature, filmmaker Michel Ocelot's Tales of the Night is too artistically heavy-handed to be kid-friendly, but doesn't offer enough content to appeal to adults looking for more than just imaginative animation technique. Ocelot's visual motif of pitch-black animated silhouettes juxtaposed against brightly colored backdrops is striking, but the six fairy-tale-like animated shorts compiled here seem randomly conceived, with scripting that is more whimsical than well thought out. In an awkward opening, the film presents a roomful of scriptwriters imagining these fantastical tales in something like a boardroom brainstorming session. The resulting oddball dream scenarios involve a boy from Antilles who finds his way down into a strange underworld where he's confronted and tested by an evil king (and ultimately aided by talking insects and animals), another boy who dreams of a magic drum that will make everyone dance, an amorous werewolf, a girl that turns into a deer, an unnaturally honest lad, and more damsel in distress-type scenarios. The creative visual aspect here is somewhat intriguing, but the story concepts lack thematic focus and drama. Optional. (M. Sandlin)