Eleanor's Secret

This animated French film tells the clever tale of a 7-year-old boy named Nat, who cannot yet read but fondly remembers how his late aunt Eleanor used to read to him from books in her huge personal library. Upon Eleanor's death, Nat's parents inherit her villa, but Nat is bequeathed her books. Unfortunately, before Nat is able to comprehend the significance of that gift, his parents allow a secondhand dealer to take the books away to sell. Only then does Nat learn that the fairy tale characters in Eleanor's library are alive and need to be kept together as a community, or they will vanish forever. Nat's quest to learn to read an ancient spell that will save the fictional figures leads to many an adventure, including being reduced to a tiny stature, pairing up with Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit, and running from a snapping lobster and a hungry seagull. Filmmaker Dominique Monféry's Eleanor's Secret serves up a lovely paean to the joys of reading (and is much better in the French subtitled original than the English dub). Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)