Kirikou and The Sorceress
Kirikou et la Sorcière (Kirikou and the Sorceress) is a 1998 French animated film, directed by Michel Ocelot, loosely based on a West African Fairy Tale.
It tells the story of a tiny baby boy, named Kirikou, who is born in a spectacular way (all by himself, without effort of his mother nor outside help) and can speak and walk immediately after being born. After a couple of questions, he learns that a wicked sorceress, Karaba, has cursed the village and devoured all the men and boys, except his uncle, who is on his way to fight the sorceress. He tricks the sorceress, saves his uncle as well as the children of the village (twice!!), brings the water back to the dried-up spring and, among other things, discovers the sorceress' true motivations.
Truly impressive story, worth watching every second of it!
There's also lots of controversy because of the depiction of nudity, although the real pre-colonial Africans did walk that way in a completely asexual atmosphere. But since America has terrible issues with women's nipples, the film wasn't released in the United States until 2002.
It was so successful that it spawned an Interquel called Kirikou et les bêtes sauvages (Kirikou and the Wild Beasts) in 2005 and a musical, Kirikou et Karaba (Kirikou and Karaba), in 2007.
- Anti-Villain: Karaba is evil, because of all the probation she went through at the hands of men, including very a subtly implied rape and all the bad things that she allegedly had done are ultimately proved to be false, although she does hate everyone, but she gets better.
- Armor-Piercing Question: "Why Karaba the Sorceress is wicked?" by Kirikou, naturally.
- Audible Sharpness: When Karaba's fetish passes her the Poisoned Lance, the camera lingers on the nasty-looking blade. It shines and sounds very sharp indeed.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Subverted with Karaba although she does get prettier when she makes a Heel Face Turn.
- Big Bad: Karaba
- Constantly Curious: Kirikou's defining trait.
- Cute Shotaro Boy: Naked, even.
- Darkest Africa
- Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Karaba wears lots of jewelry, including in her hair and on her breasts.
- Fertile Feet: During Karaba's Heel Face Turn, the plants and flowers she previously had eroded with her Walking Wasteland ability, comes back to life prettier than before.
- Grumpy Old Man: The old man of the village, but he's not very wise (nor humble).
- Happy Ending: Karaba turns good, all the men of the village who supposedly were dead were actually alive and well, and all the main problems for the village seem fixed.
- Hates Everyone Equally: Karaba.
- Hermit Guru: The Wise Old Man of the Mountain, Kirikou's grandpa.
- Hot Witch: Karaba.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Karaba. Not really! The men she allegedly had eaten were, actually, turned into mooks.
- Improbable Hairstyle: Karaba's star-like afro.
- Interquel: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts
- Kid Hero: Kirikou
- Likes Older Women: Kirikou
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Karaba: One day, you will say that to a nice little girl. |
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- The Messiah: Kirikou
- The Musical: Kirikou and Karaba.
- Mooks: The Fetish (no, not that kind of fetish).
- Mordor: Not an entire nation or country, but the area surrounding Karaba's hut looks pretty dead.
- Overnight Age-Up: A kiss from Karaba turns Kirikou from a cute baby boy into a handsome young man.
- Rampage From a Nail: The sorceress has a massive thorn in her back, stuck so deeply in the only way to remove it is with your teeth. When it's removed, she gets better.
- Walking Wasteland: Karaba
- Wonder Child: Kirikou