Little Amelie or the Character of Rain, distributed by GKids, is an adaptation of Amelie Nothomb’s autobiography beautifully told in traditional 2D animated form. The movie is presented with the original French dialogue with subtitles. It tells the story of Amelie, a Belgian girl in Japan who is born in a vegetative state and remained so for the first 2 years of her life. Even though her body couldn’t move, her mind is fully active the entire time in a dream-like state. Amelie comes to the conclusion that she is god via the movements of her family and everything else around her, and it seems to her anyway that thousands of years have passed even though it was only 2 years in real time.
Amelie’s life changed forever when an Earthquake hits Japan on her second birthday, jostling her out of her vegetative state. She’s finally able to move about freely, but she finds it difficult to interact with her family and cries constantly much to the chagrin of her parents and their landlord, Kashima, who suggests they hire Nishio as a nanny for Amelie. It isn’t until her Grandma Claude from Belgian comes for a visit and introduces Amelie to the sweet taste of white chocolate that Amelie finally feels joy toward her grandma and the rest of the family except for her brother Andre who has teased her.
Amelie begins to blossom and talk quite eloquently quickly with Grandma Claude and her nanny Nishio. When Claude finally leaves to go back to Begium, Amelie is distraught with sadness and goes to cry by herself in a corner of the home. Nishio comes to console her with a book about yokai, Japanese folklore of supernatural spirits, who spark Amelie’s imagination and distract her from Grandma Claude’s departure.
From then on, Amelie and Nishio inseparable. Amelie accompanies Nishio for her morning exercises, walks through the garden, meal preparation, and just watching the rain fall outside. Nishio even teaches Amelie the kanji of her name, 雨 or ame, which means rain on the foggy window. Nishio also tells Amelie how she lost her family during World War II.
Amelie and Nishio’s growing friendship irks Kashima though who feels Nishio is too friendly and familiar with the Westerners who had helped devastate Japan at the end of World War II, so she forbids Nishio from working for Amelie’s family anymore. How will Amelie cope without Nishio?
The story is told all through Amelie’s perspective, making what seems to be ordinary to us just a little more magical and wonderful when experienced for the first time. The visuals range from the simplistic for real life to the extraordinary for things in the imaginary realm. The colors just exemplify how vivid the real world is once Amelie is awakened from her vegetative state. We also get introduced to many cultural aspects of Japan from koi to the lantern festival which are both wonderous and beautiful.
I really loved seeing Amelie’s relationship with her Grandma Claude and later with Nishio. One can only hope that everyone has someone like them in their lives. Even though Amelie doesn’t have quite the strong bond with the rest of her family as she does with Claude and Nishio, she still feels a connection toward each of them.
Hiding beneath all the beauty though are some darker mature themes including death, suicide, racism, and the aftermath of war. None of them are explicit in the movie, but they still have quite the effect on the narrative.
Overall, Little Amelie is a visual and narrative delight that will enchant, entertain, and enlighten. You’ll laugh and possibly tear up.
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