Tito and the Birds

The destructive power of fear and those who aim to harness it in pursuit of their ambitions are the themes of this striking animated film from Brazil by directors Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar, and André Catoto. The pint-sized protagonist is Tito (voiced by Pedro Henrique), whose inventor father was exiled from the house years ago by his wife after the machine he was working on—a device to allow humans to communicate with birds—malfunctioned and injured the boy. Now, Tito—with the help of his pals Sarah and Buiú—is attempting to finish his father’s project, eventually enlisting the help of his young inventor rival Teo, son of TV provocateur Souza, a man who stokes his audience’s paranoia about crime to sell units in his high-security luxury housing development. Souza also uses his frenzied harangues to exacerbate fright over a plague that is sweeping the city—a disease that literally turns its victims into lumbering zombies and finally inert rocks. The children believe that completing their machine will allow them to recover the ancient wisdom possessed by despised street pigeons, which will provide the key to a cure. The moral of Tito and the Birds might well fly over the heads of its young target audience, but lovers of unusual animation will certainly be enthralled by its style, which is reminiscent of oil painting (complete with brushstrokes) that is brought to life and made bolder by added digital effects. Recommended. (F. Swietek)