MAF Day 1 - My Life as a Courgette

A stop-motion clay animation that touches on the issue of kids living in the orphanage. My Life as a Courgette does not appear like an emotional film, but it makes audience cry by the end of the movie. It a really beautiful piece, and I think that this film is a breakthrough in the world of animation because it does not sugarcoat the reality of the life of kids in the orphanage unlike some other Hollywood animated features that wants to advocate positivity yet fails to do so, and became superficial, because the positivity that they are promoting is too good to be true. Courgette, on the other hand, managed to use realism to evoke an emotional response from the audience, and hence is a more successful film in my opinion.

The character designs of the animation tells a lot about each of the character's background story, and makes it easy for the audience to follow the trait of the characters. Also, there is no obvious villains in the story. The whole animation is a journey with situations and obstacles for the main character, Courgette, to overcome which makes the story more personal, and make the audience empathise him better. Despite the depth of the issue discussed in the film, My Life as a Courgette is also a children-friendly film because all the tragedy that happened in the film are subtly communicated in terms of visuals, and is more heavily discussed in the narration.