Oscarless Animated Films Part 6

Oscarless Animated Films Part 6: Azur and Asmar: The Prince's Quest (2006)

 

Azur and Asmar is an Arabian tale about two brothers: a light-skinned boy with blue eyes named Azur and a dark-skinned boy with brown eyes named Asmar. Azur would normally get Asmar in trouble as a kid; so much that Azur's father banishes Asmar and his mother. Azur, however, travels to Asmar's country to see his adoptive mother and win the magic Djinn fairy, whom they were told about in stories when Azur and Asmar were kids.

Of the many CGI movies released worldwide in 2006, one of the most innovative and original of them was this rare gem, Azur and Asmar. Yep, I believe it's better than Cars. While other CG films at the time had either animals, toys, or machines as the main characters, Azur and Asmar had humans as the main characters.

Another notable difference is that the characters have very limited angles. In previous CGI films like Cars, Madagascar, and The Incredibles, the characters were viewed in just about every angle imaginable. In Azur and Asmar, however, the characters are viewed as if they were in a 2D side-scrolling video game. You never see the characters from a bird's eye view.

This film also takes place in the Middle East, while previous CGI films took place in either a different time period, alternate universe, or North America. The only exceptions at the time I can think of are Finding Nemo (Australia) and Valiant (England, France, and Germany). In fact, there are even scenes in which the characters speak from English (or French, depending on which country you live in) to Arabic.

This film also features one of the youngest princesses in an animated film to date: Chamsous Sabah.

When Azur and Asmar was released in the US in 2008, The Weinstein Company dubbed it into English, though there are scenes in which the characters speak Arabic. This was right after Doogal, the horrific dub of the 2005 CGI film The Magic Roundabout. The English dub of Azur and Asmar is basically an apology letter saying 'We're so sorry for ruining a European classic. Here's a good dub of a lesser known film to make up for it.'

While the film may have awkward-looking CG animation, Azur and Asmar makes up for it with a deep, engaging story. It actually reminds me of this quote I saw in the book 'The Art of Frozen', in which they said "A strong story will carry weak animation, but the most polished animation can't save a weak story." I personally strongly recommend this movie to all animation buffs.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Feature. Tune in next week when I talk about another French contemporary classic, April and the Extraordinary World!