{"id":27396,"date":"2017-02-17T18:14:25","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T22:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/?p=27396"},"modified":"2017-02-17T18:14:25","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T22:14:25","slug":"movie-review-fresh-and-insightful-oscar-nominee-my-life-as-a-zucchini-is-a-delectable-animated-film-for-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/2017\/02\/17\/movie-review-fresh-and-insightful-oscar-nominee-my-life-as-a-zucchini-is-a-delectable-animated-film-for-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: Fresh and Insightful, Oscar-nominee MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI is a delectable Animated Film for adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cinema<\/p>\n

By Roger Costa<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"cinema9 year-old lonely boy Zucchini, as his mother calls him, spends most of his time hanging in his home’s attic, playing with his kite, drawing bizarre figures that reflects his reality, and collecting cans of beer left all over the house by his compulsive drunken mother. During an accident, his mother falls dead and he’s sent to a facility for orphan and rebellious children. There, in a sad mood, longing for the presence of a shield, fatherless, he puts in the drawer the only two pieces of memories he could carry with him- his kite which he drew his father’s figure on it, and a can of beer which is the only link that recalls his mother.<\/p>\n

In an impressive lively stop-motion animation technique that creates an immediate fascination and attachment to the protagonist and the other abandoned\u00a0 children he meets at the facility, first-time feature-length Swiss director Claude Barras blends tragedy, dark humor and eccentricism in seductive style, to address the devastating issue of families being set apart, lacking love for different reasons, and the power of overcoming the obstacles.<\/p>\n

\"cinema<\/p>\n

At first Zucchini is confronted by bullying and intimidation once he arrives at the facility. But soon he realizes all the other children are just like himself, in search of healing for their family traumas, their separations, disappointments and loneliness. They become a united force, helping each other deal with the pain, as if they were representing parents figures for each other, cheering one another and motivating their overcome. They all dream one day of being accepted by a family, somewhere they can call home.<\/p>\n

Zucchini develops a tender connection with the police officer who helped in his mother’s accident case, as well as pushing for leadership along with Simon, the bullying boy ready to scare the new ones. But it’s Camille, a mysterious, beautiful, and secretive girl who moves his interests.<\/p>\n

\"cinema<\/p>\n

Touching, graciously affective and heartbreaking, MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI is a different Animated-film from the usual. It depicts the sorrow of these children with insightful observations on adulthood, modernity, lack of compassion and respect, as well as it explores their innocence as they discuss the adults’ choices that caused such consequences, and how they cope with the facts.<\/p>\n

The film is also full of adventurous moments, funny, darkly sharp humor, as the children learn they must make the best of what’s left in their childhood, specially when they go on a camp trip to the mountains where there’s skiing, dancing and more. The place is also the set for the film’s most striking revelation, as Zucchini and Camille fully exchange their inner emotions watching the moonlight, “Sometimes we cry when we’re happy” she says, simply beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"cinema<\/p>\n

Nominated for the 2017 Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI is a delicate, funny and moving story about the need of reconciliation and stability for families, and specially for children.<\/p>\n

MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI (A GKIDS Release. Opens Friday, February 24th at Sunshine Cinemas in NYC and other selected cities. Info and showtimes: http:\/\/www.gkids.com\/films\/my-life-as-a-zucchini\/ )<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roger Costa 9 year-old lonely boy Zucchini, as his mother calls him, spends most of his time hanging in his home’s attic, playing with his kite, drawing bizarre figures that reflects his reality, and collecting cans of beer left all over the house by his compulsive drunken mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"views":2024,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27402,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27396\/revisions\/27402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}