Le grand Noël des animaux [Animal Tales of Christmas Magic] (2024)

This is a French anthology of animated shorts, each written and directed by a female filmmaker, stylized to look something like a children's book brought to life. The movie was released in various overseas markets last year, but - as far as I know - is just reaching the US now. It's simple but beautiful, a throwback to old 2D animated shorts and holiday specials. A few of the sequences reminded me of animated Sesame Street sequences, though I assume the actual inspiration came mainly from French cartoons of the same era. Everything in this is intended for a young audience - there's no serious danger or animosity in any of these shorts, and nothing really gets hurt. I wouldn't hesitate to show this to a toddler or younger: any child old enough to look at a screen is old enough to see this. At the same time, it's all sweet and touching enough to appeal to adults who appreciate the medium. This is an all-ages film, excluding perhaps that 8 to 16 window where anything cute is deemed "for babies."

The holiday elements vary a bit from piece to piece, but the versions of Christmas being celebrated here range from cartoon absurdity to childlike fantasy to a sort of pagan nature worship. If that sounds like something you'd enjoy, I strongly recommend tracking this down and watching it with your kids. If that sounds like something that might clash with your religious beliefs... well... I strongly recommend your kids watch this without you.

Depending on the segment, the stories are either wordless or nearly so, and the filmmakers themselves appear to have made artistic decisions surrounding versions for various markets. I'd love to see the French version some day, but this isn't a case where the English version feels haphazardly dubbed over. Title cards integrated into the animation and style are used to introduce each of the five stories, the voice actors feel appropriate to the characters and moments, and while the lyrics of a song closing the movie were rewritten and reworked into English, the new version is credited to composer Pablo Pico and singer Broughton, both of whom worked on the original. The English version feels like a complete film in its own right, so don't hesitate if that's what's available. That said, after you're done watching (and only after), look up the original version of the aforementioned song, because that is a bit better.

I can't imagine your experience will be impacted in the least by knowing the plots, but - for tradition if nothing else - let's go ahead and raise a *SPOILER WARNING* since I want to go into a bit of detail about each of these. But, for what it's worth, I think you're far less likely to feel like something's been spoiled by reading about this than by seeing clips of the animation or listening to the end song in advance. These shorts are experiences more than stories.

I'll start with a quick callout to the sixth director of this anthology of five shorts, Olesya Shchukina, who handled the interludes between. These are the moments that feel the most reminiscent of Sesame Street and other kid's animation of the 1970s. There's no real story here, just brief sequences with anthropomorphic snowflakes, stars, and the like. These do a good job maintaining the tone from sequence to sequence.

The first of the stories is Caroline Attia Larivière's "The Journey of Santa Claus," a short about a lost bird (a stork, I think) winding up on an iceberg with Santa Claus and a fox, and their attempts to work together to get back to land. This features the most humanlike animals of the shorts - it's the only one where we see any of the animal characters wearing articles of clothing (the stork has a hat, and both him and the fox have neckerchiefs). In the end, they enlist the help of a whale and help Santa get his sleigh to the forest his elves occupy.

This is one of several where the holidays seem a bit extraneous to the short. Conceptually, this is really about a stork, a fox, and a man trying to work together to get back to land - the fact the human is Santa is oddly incidental. Does that matter? Of course not: this thing is fricking adorable, it's certainly not hindered by the presence of Santa, and kids will love it.

The second piece is "The Little Chick's First Christmas," by Ceylan Beyoglu. In it, a small chick idolizes a rooster overseeing the coop. The rooster initially finds this annoying, as do the hens. But the chick persists, trying to help and learning the rooster's routine of waking and feeding the hens, collecting the eggs, and guarding them from a pair of hawks (the only true antagonists in the entire movie, and even then their focus is exclusively on stealing eggs intended for market, not hurting any of the chickens). When the rooster becomes sick, the little chick steps up and manages to rally the others. By the end, the rooster and hens learn to appreciate the chick.

Christmas is even less essential here here than in "The Journey of Santa Claus," though the holidays are referenced through recurring gags involving a Christmas tree the chickens are decorating. It certainly feels like the holidays were tacked on to make it fit with the anthology, though. Does that matter? Of course not: this thing is fricking adorable. Kids will love it.

Olesya Shchukina's "The Last Christmas Tree" is the first where the holidays feel central to the story and theme. This story centers around a girl and her overworked mother looking for a tree on Christmas Eve, while the woodland animals attempt to prevent them from taking the tree they've decorated: the last in the forest, which has been picked over by other humans collecting trees for the holiday. This leads into a series of comedic misadventures and misunderstandings: the animals assume the girl and her mother are monsters, while the humans assume the animals are dangerous. By the end, everyone winds up together at the aforementioned "last Christmas tree", and the girl - who initially wanted a tree for the holiday - stops her mother from cutting it down, having now witnessed the devastation left by the annual collection. Santa (a different Santa than the one from the first segment - these aren't in continuity) shows up and distributes gifts, then the girl and her mother invite the animals to their house for cocoa.

It's fricking adorable. Kids will love it.

The fourth piece, "The Tanuki and the Christmas Surprise," by Haruna Kishi, is set in Japan. A pair of brothers are alone at Christmas, gathering wood for the fire outside their family's cabin. They find a tanuki and give it food, then later rescue the same animal from a trap. Soon after, the boys lose their sleigh and bucket of sticks, then get lost themselves in a snowstorm. As they grow afraid, a strange boy appears to them in the snow. The child is barefoot but doesn't seem cold, and seems supernaturally gifted at finding things, helping the boys locate their lost items, then helping them get home, where they celebrate together. Before long, they notice the child has a scar in same place as the tanuki they rescued. Also, the magic he's used to retain his human form starts wearing off, so his tail and ears reappear. He runs off, but the boys leave him a treat outside their window.

This one is somewhat more realistic and aimed at a slightly older viewer (though nothing here is likely to upset young kids). As you'd expect from the premise, Miyazaki feels like an influence on this, and that's never a bad thing. Again, the Christmas stuff is light, aside from associations between the season and magic. But on the whole, the lights and (I'm assuming) seasonably appropriate treats aren't essential to the story, which could really have been set any time in winter. Does that matter at all? Of course not. This thing is fricking adorable, and kids will love it.

Finally, the last (and in my opinion best) of the segments is Camille Alméras's "The Animals' Great Celebration," which tells the story of a young lynx following a massive number of other animals of all kinds towards a mountain. On the way, the lynx encounters and befriends some lemmings and a wolverine. At first, we see smaller animals afraid of larger ones, but - ignoring typical behavior - they all ultimately help each other. There's also an owl that terrifies the lemmings and lynx cub, but once again it's here to help and make friends. By the end, they reach their destination and find countless animals gathered to gaze up at the Northern Lights.

If that doesn't sound like much of a story, it's because everything important is conveyed through design and animation. It's extremely expressionistic, playing with minimalist designs to communicate character and story. And then there's the music, which builds as the animals approach their destination until ultimately coalescing into a moving and strikingly powerful culmination for the section and anthology as a whole.

This section is less Christmas in the traditional sense than a story about the Winter Solstice. The lyrics more or less spell that out in the English version (and - assuming Lindsay and I were able to figure out enough of the French version on Youtube - there, too). Frankly, it almost feels like the lyrics exist in part to make sure you understand this is paean to nature (Mother Nature is name checked), rather than misinterpret it as a "lion laying down with the lamb" pastiche.

Does that matter? You're goddamn right it matters. Solstice celebrations of one kind or another have existed far longer than Christianity, and Christmas is best understood as an extension of those. Also, the environmental subtext here is something kids need to be exposed to. It absolutely matters, and the movie's better for it.

Also, it's fricking adorable. Kids, I'm telling you, are gonna love it.

So are adults - this is very good. Plus, at an hour and ten minutes it's right on the border between "short movie" and "long special," which ensures it doesn't outstay its welcome. As I said at the top, this probably won't work on kids who have decided they're too old for "kid's stuff," but anyone who hasn't grown into that stage, along with anyone who's grown out of it and can appreciate the artistry in this kind of animation, is going to find a lot to appreciate here.

I loved it and consider it among the best animated holiday movies of all time. The fact it was released the same year as That Christmas retroactively makes 2024 a notable year for Christmas animation.