ANI-MOVIES, *Jack And The Cuckoo-Clock Heart

This French-animated film was inspired by an album by the rock group Dionysos, and produced by Adele director Luc Benson, which plays out like a Tim Burton musical with slightly modern rock styles added.

Set in 1870s Scotland, Jack was a boy born on the coldest day ever, and his heart was frozen solid. Fortunately, the midwife Madeleine was also an acclaimed “witch” with a talent in science who replaced Jack’s infant heart with a cobbled together cuckoo-clock, and she eventually becomes his adopted mother. Years later, and Jack’s first day out in the city has him falling in love with a nearsighted calliope player named Acacia, although this causes his artificial heart to malfunction as one of the things he can’t do is fall in love as the strain would be lethal. Jack then quests for Acacia after she’s skipped town, and his search leads him to historical figures like Jack the Ripper, and George Melies who just created the movie projector. Jack finds Acacia now working as a flamenco dancer in a carnival where they confess their feelings for each other, which leads to a rather ambiguous ending.

It works out as decent steampunk feature, especially with the fictional accounting of Melies as a supporting character, although the English translation of some of the musical lyrics aren’t totally understandable, and the film operates under more fairy tale logic than it maybe needs to.