There are fables that challenge children (The NeverEnding Story), that push children (Labyrinth), and that are not safe for children (Pan’s Labyrinth). In each instance, no matter their differences, the perspective of the child is the focal point through their transformative adventure. This is the starting point for the new Benoît Chieux film (Aunt Hilda!), co-written with Alain Gagnol (A Cat in Paris), Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds, an animated tale exploring imagination, perception, love, and grief, each aspect delicately handled so that a child of any age can experience Sirocco and be open to its beautiful message, adorned with surreal art direction and sublime musical scoring.
Sirocco (voiced by Terrence Scammell) in SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF WINDS. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © SACREBLEU PRODUCTIONS – TAKE FIVE – CIEL DE PARIS.
Dropped off at a family friend’s house, sisters Juliette and Carmen (Élia St-Pierre and Tallula Dinsmore, respectively) struggle to entertain themselves while their host, Agnès (Briauna James), takes a nap. Impatient to do something, Juliette, with some help from the wind, happens upon a toy (Bruce Dinsmore) that crawled out of one of Agnès’s books and the world of her Sirocco novels. Without heading her sister’s warnings, Juliette follows The Toy through a portal that places the two sisters, now transformed into cats, into the surreal world of Sirocco (Terrence Scammell), a fearsome wizard whose name being uttered send shivers down all who hear it. Can the two girls return home safe and sound or will they be lost in this world of stories forever?
L-R: Juliette (voiced by Élia St-Pierre) and The Mayor (voiced by Marcel Jeannin) in SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF WINDS. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © SACREBLEU PRODUCTIONS – TAKE FIVE – CIEL DE PARIS.
The narrative by Chieux and Gagnol is a simple one: two sisters are transported to a new world and must survive the unknown and get home. Upon this simple plot hangs a complex web of topics. There’s the concept of Sirocco, a character our initial narrator, Agnès, introduces us to as a lonely and angry wizard who casts out even the things he creates due to boredom. This introduces the meta-narrative structure that will follow the sisters into the book, as the world they engage with is as real as anything their brains can perceive despite its Seussian design. Akin to Alice falling into Wonderland (by Lewis Carroll), these two are sucked into a story that’s propelled by Agnès’s imagination, but also her grief and her love (indicated by the conversation Agnès has with a photograph before falling asleep). If the world we inhabit right now is shaped by the joy and sorrow of those around us, it’s not too far of a leap to imply that Sirocco’s world is the same, except the sisters learn that there are things that even Agnès doesn’t realize about this world. Enter the concepts of self-discovery and self-actualization, wherein the characters the sisters meet don’t always adhere to the rules of the narrative laid out in Agnès’s various books. More than that, though these characters are existing within the world of Agnès’s imagination, there’s no requirement that they must only follow her rules. Such a choice by Chieux and Gagnol empowers the script to surprise its two leads who are so close to Agnès as to know her books inside and out. What kind of adventure would it be if things weren’t as expected, if control was ripped away, and, here, a hero wasn’t found in an unexpected but important form: an opera singer named Selma (Lucinda Davis).
Now, the score from Pablo Pico (Marona’s Fantastic Tale) is positively divine, channeling the large scope adventure that these sisters are on with a dash of whimsy and the gusto of a gale force (as appropriate). But when it meshes with Selma with in the song Opéra Sirocco, it hits new levels of awe. The slow build, the powerful yet graceful tones of Célia Kameni, Selma’s singing voice, gives the scene in which we meet her (where the characters are sitting in a floating concert hall leagues above sea level) a grandioseness and regality. This is important as the girls get to Selma, a figure with significance to unlocking the many mysteries of Sirocco. It may seem strange for an opera singer to be the key until one considers that this is the Kingdom of Winds and the control of air — to give life, to cool down, to sing — are all connected. Likewise, Pico’s score dabbles in delicacy to evoke the wonder of the world, while conversely reminding us and the characters of the severity that exists behind it. As those battling hurricane season are aware, the winds can give and take away, therefore, respecting the winds is the smartest thing to do in a world which seems controlled by them. But this is also an adventure story, thereby giving Pico the permission to incorporate playful notes, marching drums, and clashing cymbals to denote the quirky quest before us. The integration of the score into the characters and the narrative elevates each portion, making the dangers heightened, the animation more daring, and the imagination wild with possibilities. If you’re a fan of Alan Silvestri’s Back to the Future score, you may even notice a few notes indicative of a different type of traveler, though that may be just this cinephile’s auditory tingle going off.
A scene from SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF WINDS. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © SACREBLEU PRODUCTIONS – TAKE FIVE – CIEL DE PARIS.
This, dear reader, brings us to the art that makes up this surreal world. It’s not surreal in the absurdist sense, but that the rules are defined by the imagination and possibilities. Flying ships that are really massive amphibian-like creatures, gnats as big as people that crave candy, housing that wouldn’t meet any sense of safe housing code with the gale force winds they deal with — reality is what they make of it and they live in it daily. Part of why the film is able to cut to the chase so quickly is that neither sister dwells on the rules of the place, having read the books, and is more able to just engage with things as they are. This, therefore, empowers the audience to do the same as the art design of the entire film is both intricately complex in a simple style of animation known as “ligne claire” in the original French, or “clear line” style. This means that there’re sections of entire color with distinct lines breaking up objects into pieces, whether it’s the repetition of circular/spherical designs on costumes and objects (carrying forward the notion of flow) or crafting outfits with layers, but each one is its own piece, therefore giving all the objects their own sense of space and weight. By not layering the colors, there’s a visual separation of what life is like, making the entirety of Sirocco, whether in the world or out of it, a type of non-realistic adventure. In a similar way that GKIDS’s other release this year, Chicken for Linda!, utilized a whimsical hand-drawn/water color-like style to evoke the colorful and less restrictive perspective of its central character, the art here speaks to the relationship between the sisters and their view of the differences between adults and children or heroes and villains. There’s rigidity by keeping the colors separated by lines, but there’s also distinction and beauty, too, in the way that the blocked colors build upon each other to form something beautiful.
L-R: Carmen (voiced by Tallula Dinsmore), Juliette (voiced by Élia St-Pierre), and Selma (voiced by Lucinda Davis) in SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF WINDS. Photo courtesy of GKIDS Films. © SACREBLEU PRODUCTIONS – TAKE FIVE – CIEL DE PARIS.
At the end of the day, Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds is a family story that returns its audience from its trip to Oz, Wonderland, or whichever Neverland comes to mind, as if lowered carefully by a delicate breeze. There is tension, but no real unease; there is terror, but no real horror; there is conflict, but no love lost. In fact, one can look at Sirocco as a reminder that love is never lost and that we’re never too far from those who love and watch over us. Accessible whether viewed in the original French or English dub, Benoît Chieux bridges together several forms of artistic expression to create a harmonious sensory experience.
In select theaters August 11th and 12th, 2024.
Available on streaming in both French and English September 3rd, 2024.
For more information, head to the official GKIDS Films Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
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