Leave the emotional blackmail to Spielberg and Disney. Some movies don't need to resort to incinerating toys or deer, or hunting down dying, friendly aliens to elicit an emotional reaction less lizard-brain than a jump scare from an audience.
It was truly touching in its subtlety, Ma vie de Courgette (2016), a French-Swiss co-production released as My Life as a Courgette (UK) or My Life as a Zucchini (North America), a stop-motion animated featurette by Swiss director Claude Barras, based on the novel, Autobiographie d'une Courgette by Gilles Paris.
The plot revolves around a child nicknamed Courgette, how he ends up in an orphanage, his adjustment to his new life and to the other children living there. This isn't Annie or Oliver!: although it's an animated film, these ugly-cute characters are rarely cartoonish. After Courgette's arrival at the orphanage, the film then goes into the other orphan's stories. While their stories are obviously never pleasant, some are downright tragic with accompanying emotional scarring.
Director Barras never goes for shock or melodrama during Courgette. It's his restraint that gives the film its strength. The film is airy, but not lightweight. The characters and their personal tragedies are presented as matter of fact, enough to give them depth but not to horrify or titillate. Despite the character design they are all presented as realistic, from the children to the policeman that handles Courgette's case to the administrators of the orphanage. Despite the subject matter, the children and the staff bring plenty of genuine smiles and occasional laughs to the table throughout the film. There are two especially touching moments—one, Rosy, the orphanage worker, kisses the children good night on the cheek; the other when Courgette and Camille hold hands on the schoolbus—that could have been merely maudlin tropes but instead illustrate how loving physical contact is as necessary as eating and breathing.
The only "cartoon" character is the aunt of Camille, a newly arrived orphan, and her storyline was the only discordant note of the film, veering out into cliché territory, but under Barras' direction, not too far out.
Ma vie de Courgette was nominated for the 2017 Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature Film and won Best Animated Film at France's 42^nd^ Cesár Awards, but who cares? If you didn't catch it the first time around or if you're looking for a poignant film that won't insult your intelligence, I strongly suggest you see Courgette.
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