This fusion of computer-generated and stop-motion animation is an enchanting and rarely intelligent family film, and Paramount's decision to drop it from their theatrical-release roster is mystifying, though I certainly believe Netflix will both find an audience for it and promote it for year-end Oscar consideration. It plays as a simultaneous adaptation of and sequel to the iconic novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It imagines the aviator as an elderly man who befriends a smart, slightly doleful schoolgirl and tells her of his fateful encounter with the title character in the Sahara in his youth, firing her imagination. The A-list voice cast includes Jeff Bridges as the aviator, Rachel McAdams as the girl's distracted single mother, Marion Cotillard as the prince's beloved rose, James Franco as the fox tamed by the prince, Ricky Gervais as the universe's most conceited man, and Benicio Del Toro as the enigmatic, death-representing serpent. The Up-esque framing device is undoubtedly designed to render the story more palatable to a modern audience, but it is conceived with care and sensitivity, and its delicately somber tone nicely complements the scenes lifted directly from the Saint-Exupéry text. And on a visual level, the film is nothing short of a marvel; the mixed-media production perfectly contrasts the symmetrical tedium of suburbia with the Howl's Moving Castle-style bric-a-brac of the world into which the aviator ushers the heroine.

B+

I saw this last year and loved it.

7/10.