Telling the story of friendship between a young girl and a lion on a farm in South Africa, Mia and the white Lion of Gilles de Maistre elicits contradictory reactions. Despite an agreed scenario, and the predictability of the plot, the critics recognize the beauty of its landscapes and the stunning complicity between the animal and the child.
«It would be a vapidity, and of a predictable consumed if everything was not true, writes Christophe Career in the Express . The form, already. Gilles de Maistre ( First breath ) was filmed in real time over three years, the fusion between the young actress (Daniah de Villiers) and the feline. No liners, nothing! See, it is so endearing that anxiety-provoking. Impressive, that’s for sure.»
MIA AND THE WHITE LION [VF] [trailer] – Watch on Figaro Live
«What could be likened to a movie environmentalist, says Arthur Champilou d’ aVoir-aLire.com , is rather simplistic, despite the undoubted commitment of its author. The scenario, he continues, adopts narrative conventions and good factions, though honest, where all the protagonists are a small step further on the path of tolerance vis-à-vis animals as members of their family[…]. The set is staged in such a way summary: plans little complex, photography, warm but not solar, cut that agency’s plans without really weaving links between them.»
» READ ALSO – The films to see during the Christmas holidays
To Jeremiah Couston Télérama , Mia and the White Lion follows «the canvas is a typical movie for children a little gnangnan as Disney knew how to trouser the string in the 1970s and 1980s. The fable of family abuse plans of savannah, shot with a drone in a light gold brown.»
according To Christophe Caron Voice of North , «it is difficult to ignore a direction of the actors to be inadequate and a realization of the missing, singularly personality. Gilles de Maistre, the famous documentarian, globe-trotting, is visibly less comfortable with the fiction.» «The scenario is as predictable as naive, the characters are caricatured, and the realization is heavy. Admittedly the film is aimed at kids, but this is not a reason to be too demonstrative!», regrets Xavier Leherpeur of the New Obs .
«The perfect release of Christmas with the family, to recommend especially for its change of scenery»
According to Kim Bardinet First , the tenderness between the child and the animal in Mia and the white Lion atone for the defects of his scenario: «The predictability of the plot and small approximations of the interpretation are quickly forgiven as the scenes where Mia teen plays with the feline adult are breathtaking», she confesses. Christophe Caron, meanwhile, «has been amazed by the relationship between the young actress south african Daniah De Villiers and the beast, which will display 250 pounds as an adult. Without shooting in the studio. Without any special effects. Without the green background. Without big beast to roar digital and the mouth pixilated.»
» READ ALSO – The cinema of 2018 seen from all angles by The Figaro
«The complicity fraternal between Mick and Mia manages to touch,» admits Arthur Champilou, just like the sincere love that John and Alice their children. The young spectators will take to the game and will not want to cuddle the little fur ball,» he wrote. «The presence of a malicious dog in the desert that haunts the pans the family maintained a share of comedy,» adds Pierre Vavasseur from the Paris . «The perfect release of Christmas with the family, to recommend especially for its scenery,» sums up Christophe Caron.