Le Petit Prince (2015)

When I read the book years ago, the picture of an elephant swallowed by a snake was the most interesting thing and it was unforgettable. The description about how adults preferred numbers came true when a friend of mine told me about how good her French teacher was with statistics. My conclusion at that time was French people were very good with numbers and statistics, just like what it said in The Little Prince book.

My favourite picture from the book

It's different from Indonesian people, I think. Most of us probably cannot answer if you ask how many islands in Republik Indonesia, except elementary students. We also don't care about statistics, like % of people live in big cities, population growth, ....

The Little Prince movie is very interesting. The main character is a little girl - not sure how old she is, but her height is half of her mother, and is about to enter an academy. Her mother is a hard-working woman who leaves her alone in the house until she comes home from work. Her father is even busier, he travels around the world and gives her a snow-globe for a birthday present every year.

The admission interview in the Werth Academy

During a summer holiday, the little girl must study hard so she can enter the Werth Academy. The audience can see how she lost herself in the world of adults [She can't even answer a simple question like: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Most children know the answer, although the answer is usually the same: either a doctor, a soldier, a pilot, a police, an engineer; and they usually do not become that when they grow up.], until the mother and daughter moved house and the little girl meets their new neighbour: The Aviator.

The Aviator's house itself is different from others. The others's are minimalist, similar, pale and boring. His is like something comes out from a story book.

The Little Girl and the Aviator

The Aviator, now old, is lonely. He sees the little girl study very hard, scheduled by her mother to the minute, so he tries to make her enjoy her childhood by telling her the story of the Little Prince. When she gets interested, she is disappointed by the ending, i.e. The Little Prince died.

The Aviator's yard

However, when the Aviator is gravely ill, she tries to make him get his spirit back by looking for the Little Prince, whom she believes still alive. She does find him, but he now has grown and becomes an adult and seems to have forgotten his days with the Aviator in Sahara desert.

The story of the Little Prince from the book is depicted beautifully. I don't know what the characters were made of, sometimes they looked like they were made from recycled paper.

Taming the Fox

I have known the Little Prince book for years, so the fictional story has become familiar to me. The little girl part, with the relentless activities, also looked real. But when she flied an airplane and went to an asteroid, I thought it was too much and didn't make sense. But when I think about it again: if the Little Prince can travel from his asteroid to the Earth by the help of birds, why the little girl cannot drive a plane?