Better Late Then Never

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Boy and the World (Brazilian Portuguese: O Menino e o Mundo) (2013) Director: Alê Abreu Watched: December 2017 Rating: 6/10 Colorful/playful, Children's drawings come alive, Kaleidoscope fun. Lively Brazilian soundtrack, Learn Latin America. Baffling/disordered, Only backwards Portuguese. Social change soapbox- Characters/plot take back seat; Rather see stills in art show. Somonka is a form of poetry that is essentially two tanka poems (the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format), the second stanza a response to the first. Traditionally, each is a love letter and it requires two authors, but sometimes a poet takes on two personas. My somonka will be a love/hate letter to this film? #Somonka #PoemReview #Animation #LatinAmerca #NoDialogue #Propoganda

This movie is a genuine masterpiece, humane and complex. It's a story of wonder and discovery; the plot simply resolves around this idea. The movie offers the viewer a chance to see the world and explore its immensity together with the little protagonist, and it's simply an offer you can't refuse when each scene is so delicate and so full of life, and draws you in so intensely. Searching for his father, the titular boy runs from the countryside to the modern city, seeing and meeting an array of characters, all of which portray different states and facets of life, no matter the fact that they not once dialogue – the movie has virtually no spoken lines, but all emotion is generated by the actions and the (very Brazillian) rhythm of the instruments. You can feel the bright joy of the singers, the exhaustion of the rural workers as they go on with their labor routine, the boy's curiosity, and courage to enter each different environment. Speaking of environment, each is unique, and is as alive as the characters that inhabit them. The boy's home brings a sense of comfort,the cotton plantations are mostly composed of repetitive patterns of trees and carts. The busy city is cramped with ads and cars and machines of all kids. So although being, in general, lighthearted, the tone is quite emotive; after all, it represents the spectrum of human emotion.The animation is scribble-like, resembling crayon drawings done by a child, but the fluidity and kaleidoscope of thus fitting perfectly well its theme.It's the kind of art that I'd recommend anyone to see at least once, for it has much to offer in its pseudo-simplicity. It's a portrait of life, through the eyes of an exploring child.

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)Rating: 1.9/5 starsThe arrival of a new animated feature from American distributor GKids is usually a good sign. The company has given us international treasures and erstwhile Oscar nominees such as "The Secret of Kells", "Ernest and Celestine", "Chico and Rita" and "A Cat in Paris", which probably would have languished in obscurity were it not were their initiative to ensure that these masterpieces reach a wider American audience.Its latest release is the Oscar-nominated Brazilian film "Boy & the World", and while the movie is definitely an example of the adventurous, idiosyncratic, art-house animated style the company has come to represent over the years, it comes nowhere close to achieving the heights of the aforementioned titles. Without using any intelligible or even decipherable dialogue (which would have been fine had the narrative not being so tedious and soporific; this is certainly no "Shaun the Sheep"), the animated offering lackadaisically tells the story of a young boy living in an impoverished countryside whose father moves to the city in search of work. Later, the boy follows him, and has a series of encounters that expose him to the woes of the modern world: urbanization, economic exploitation, environmental degradation, and so on. However, the narrative never attempts to offer alternative to what it alludes to being evils that urgently need to be eradicated from our lifestyles.Director Alê Abreu uses a unique visual style that combines childlike, almost stick-figure people with an increasingly frenzied decoupage to represent the overstimulated world he's swallowed up in. It's rather like a very talented grade-schooler's refrigerator- door drawings expressing life. Unfortunately, the simplistic moral message of the movie and its insistence on remaining nonverbal make "Boy & the World" feel like something that would have been more tolerable as a 15- minute short than an 80-minute feature, which makes us wonder why on earth did this travesty bag an Oscar nomination over other much more deserving animated features this year. Was it just because of the distributor's reputation...?

The Boy and The World has been one of my best discoveries in recent times. A movie that tells its story not through words but music, colours and the eyes of a young boy with a sense of wonder and innocence. The two dimensional animation did nothing if not alleviate the visual thrill that the movie was. A boy's imaginations were carefully captured that went apace with his emotions.The story is about our young boy who sets out to seek his father who had to leave to work in the city. But on his journey, the boy finds many more facets of life that he had never experienced. He sees life as it could never have been in his imaginations. It is his survival through all the changes, which he never welcomed or run away from, that meets him in his lifelong quest for his father. It maybe a poignant piece for many viewers, but it is the 'hope' of the better world, which is born anew every time it is vanquished, made the movie marvellous.Ale Abreu has not only produced a masterpiece, but also, I am sure, has given us that long overdue movie which vibrates in me as a symphony of life.