“The Little Prince” is a strange, beautiful mess of a film, and it knows it. Mark Osborne’s adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 novella weaves a stop-motion animated fable about a boy who crashed on the Sahara into a computer-animated framing story about a girl whose mother is crushing her spirit with endless planning. The two stories never fully meet, but together they make a case for why childhood should not be a business process.
The film premiered at Cannes in 2015 and reached theaters in France in July before heading to Netflix for a U.S. release in August 2016. Its $97.6 million haul on a €75 million budget suggests audiences liked what they saw. Metacritic gives the film a 7/10 aggregate, which matches the mixed critical reception. Osborne’s directorial debut is a genuine attempt to honor Saint-Exupéry while telling its own story, and it mostly succeeds.
Trailer, via Paramount Pictures.
Opening With Two Stories
The film opens with a girl, voiced by Mackenzie Foy, living in a world where her mother, Rachel McAdams, runs her life with military precision. The mother is preparing the girl for enrollment at the prestigious Werth Academy, and nothing gets in the way of that plan. Then the girl’s elderly Aviator neighbor, Jeff Bridges, starts telling her about the Little Prince, a boy he says he met after crashing in the Sahara.
The Little Prince, voiced by Riley Osborne, is a wanderer from Asteroid B-612. He needs a sheep to eat the baobabs growing there, and he finds one in a box drawn by the Aviator. The Prince also tends a rose, voiced by Marion Cotillard, who is selfish and demanding. He travels to other asteroids, meeting a King, a Conceited Man, and a wealthy Businessman along the way, each a small portrait of adult foolishness.
On Earth, the Prince befriends a red fox, voiced by James Franco, who teaches him to see with his heart. The fox says goodbye, and the Prince departs. The Aviator’s story includes a venomous snake bite that kills him, allowing him to reunite with his beloved Rose. In the framing story, the Aviator gives the girl a stuffed fox as a gift and says he’ll leave to find the Little Prince.
Animation Split
The film’s biggest technical gamble is its use of stop-motion animation for the Little Prince’s story and CGI for the framing story. That split creates a visual contrast that works, though it sometimes jars. The stop-motion figures are delicate and expressive, while the CGI background feels more polished and less personal.
“It’s a great way to pay tribute to this classic book.”
Osborne explains in interviews that he wanted to treat the book as a character in the movie. The framing story allows him to do that by having the Aviator literally tell the story of the Little Prince, rather than simply re-enact it. That approach pays off in the emotional weight of the ending, even if the middle stretches a bit thin.
Voice Cast
The voice cast is A-list throughout. Bridges is the anchor, delivering a warm, weary performance as the Aviator. He shares the same concern as Osborne about doing justice to the source material, and his commitment shows in every scene. McAdams plays the mother with a cold, efficient edge that makes her cruel without ever being cartoonish. Foy holds her own as the girl, and Cotillard’s rose is a mix of petulance and tenderness.
Benicio del Toro voices the Snake, and Paul Rudd plays Mr. Prince. Albert Brooks voices the Businessman as a villain, and Ricky Gervais voices the Conceited Man. Bud Cort voices the King. Each actor brings a distinct energy to their brief scenes.
Framing Story Problem
The framing story is where the film stumbles. The girl’s mother’s relentless planning and the girl’s secret visits to the Aviator feel like a separate movie competing for attention with the Little Prince’s journey. The two threads don’t merge cleanly, and the film spends too long on the girl’s resentment of her mother before it gets back to the Prince’s adventures.
The Aviator’s decision to leave and find the Little Prince is the climax of his story, but it arrives late in the film and feels rushed. The girl’s story ends abruptly, leaving her unresolved and the film’s message about forgetting childhood unearned.
Fox’s Lesson
The fox’s advice to always see with the heart is the film’s core message, and it’s delivered with quiet sincerity. Franco’s fox is a patient teacher, and his farewell to the Little Prince is the strongest scene in the stop-motion sequence. The lesson is simple: love requires effort, and seeing with the heart means paying attention to what matters over what is visible.
That theme carries through to the framing story, where the Aviator gives the girl the stuffed fox as a gift. He tells her he’ll leave soon to find the Little Prince, and the girl reacts with anger and confusion. The film wants her to learn the lesson of the fox, but it doesn’t quite trust her to do so.
Verdict
“The Little Prince” is a flawed but earnest film that respects its source material while trying to make it its own. The stop-motion sequences are lovely, the voice cast is superb, and the fox’s lesson is genuinely moving. But the framing story drags, and the film’s ambition exceeds its execution in places.
| Element | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Stop-motion animation | Delicate, expressive | Jars with CGI background |
| Voice cast | Superb, committed | Some actors get short shrift |
| Fox’s lesson | Simple, moving | Overlooked in the framing story |
| Framing story | Sets up the Aviator’s journey | Drags, unresolved |
The film’s tagline, “Growing up isn’t the problem… forgetting is,” captures its central tension. The girl is forced to grow up faster than she should, and the film wants her to remember what she’s losing. It’s a worthy goal, but the execution falls short of the intention.
The film earns 7 of 10.
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