The fox entrusts The Little Prince before they say goodbye to each other. They have become friends after the prince made it tame. The Little Prince must go on, home to his rose.
Recently I had the pleasure of rediscovering one of the most beloved and enchanting stories “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery from 1943. The fairytale of the lonely prince is the foundation for a fun, beautiful and emotional animated movie by the same name, directed by Mark Osbourne.
The movie has a modern framework with a little 9 year old girl and her overly ambitious mother, who move into a new fully automated house in the suburbs. The mother is convinced that all of life is intended for school and career. Nothing is left up to chance in this matter. The mother has a life plan, where every minute is tailored so that the daughter can get good grades and attend the most prestigious school: Werth Academy. There is a schedule for everything, yes, even birthday gifts.
The girl’s neighbor is a strange old pilot, who shows her that there are other things to live for such as imagination, adventure and creativity. He has his plane in his backyard and is dreaming of flying one last time. The pilot tells the story of
The Little Prince, whom he met in the Sahara desert after an emergency landing…. This is how it starts.
The story of the girl in the suburbs and the prince in the stars are intertwined and they appear dressed up differently on the movie screen. The modern story is computer animated, whilst the fairytale of the prince is made a puppetry, stop motion, where the characters look like the original drawings of Saint-Exupery; The sweet melancholy and wisdom is captured in the best possible manner.
The girl is, of course, not allowed to have contact with the strange neighbor, as her mother thinks she should spend all her time excelling at mathematics and other sciences. The girl sneaks in to the pilot’s place and they have the greatest, most imaginative and absolutely crazy experiences together. He continues telling her the fairytale of The Little Prince and she discovers new perspectives to life.
Horror breaks loose when her mother finds out. The girl must go back to study and follow an even stricter schedule
Without revealing too much, at the end of the fairytale, the girl takes on an adventure to save the old man. On her travels she meets the prince as an adult. He has forgotten who he is. He has been captured by the trivial adult world, where the imagination is struggling. However, the little girl opens his eyes again and he comes back to his true self.
The movie is magical, yes, truly a pleasure. The essence of the story is important, especially in a time where school and career takes up so much of our lives. It is allowed, even in the adult world, to let the imagination run wild and take over, if we experience something which does not appear to make sense. Think of the drawing in the beginning of the fairytale – it shows a snake who has swallowed an elephant. The adults can not see what it is and all assume that it is merely a hat.
”All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it”.
“When a mystery makes an impression on you, it is best to listen to it” says the pilot, when The Little Prince asks him to draw a sheep.
The ability to give in and explore the mysteries of life lets us fly freely and let the magic unfold. Hold on to the imagination and desire to go on adventures.
When you are looking at the stars in the sky, maybe you can hear The Little Prince and his contagious laugh.
See the trailer in english here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPqgSNLfK8
About the author
Dr. Pernille Knudtzon, MD, Specialist in Family Medicine, Acupuncture, New Health Technology and NLP Trainer runs Vitafakta Health Clinic in Southern Spain. Her main medical training was done in Denmark. But curiosity led her to travel and study Holistic Medicine and Lifestyle aspects in many places around the world over the last 30 years. From her consultation in southern Spain she is now providing Personal Health Consultations based on a holistic health and functional medicine approach. She focuses on Health, Wellbeing and Vitality and guides her clients to live a healthy life and to thrive and shine the most. She is presently studying Functional Medicine at the Institute of Functional Medicine https://www.ifm.org/.