Castaway drama invites us to dream
The Red Turtle Animated adventure by Michael Dudok de Wit, with Studio Ghibli. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 80 minutes. G Japanese ghost stories and European narrative traditions magnificently combine for The Red Turtle, the first international co-production by Studio Ghibli, the Tokyo-based anime giant.
This symbol-laden animated fable by Dutch-British writer/director Michael Dudok de Wit is nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Feb. 26 Academy Awards, having previously won the Un Certain Regard Special Prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. This is the filmmaker’s feature debut; he won an Oscar in 2001 for the animated short Father and Daughter.
Entirely wordless, yet saying so much, The Red Turtle begins as a familiar Robinson Crusoe adventure, about a shipwrecked man who washes up on a remote island. His only associates are the birds, crabs and turtles who already call the isle home.
He’s a resourceful sort, able to forage for food and to fashion rudimentary shelter out of the natural mate- rials at hand, a task that risks death from accident, animal attack or the merciless force of wind and waves.
The man also crafts a raft out of the bamboo he painstakingly collects from the island’s abundant forests, in the hope of escaping his paradise prison.
The only thing he can’t create is companionship, and that’s where the title reptile comes in. He encounters the giant beast while attempting to paddle away from the island, and at first it seems he’s about to become prey.
Something altogether different ensues, marvelously, as the story takes a distinct turn toward the surreal and the heart is lifted. To say more risks spoilers.
The Red Turtle is not so much a castaway drama as it is an invitation to dream. Wholly original, yet informed by legends of both the East and West, it invites us to contem- plate humanity’s connections to the natural world and the realm of the spirit.
The stunning, pastel-shaded animation has a more adult feel to it than regular Studio Ghibli films, where wide-eyed characters often have a childlike aspect to them, even if the challenges they face are anything but childish. The film retains the feminine strength common to Studio Ghibli creations, in movies like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.
The Red Turtle is also a joy to listen to, as well as to watch. Composer Laurent Perez Del Mar contributes a strings-laden score that signals both danger and delight. It’s another integral part of a rapturous film that beckons us to watch and to think, again and again.