Excellent but underrated film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. There were many parts that I did not understand but I still loved every moment of it. I have never read or even heard of the book. It seems that there are many different interpretations of this story. No matter which you choose, it is a poignant and delightful tale.First off you have to suspend disbelief a little bit. Obviously in the real world a little girl secretly spending time alone with her old neighbor would not be a good idea. But in this realm we know right off the bat that everything will be fine.I found it very interesting that not a single one of the characters has an actual name. I found myself not even realizing this until halfway through. The little girl's mother had already fully immersed her in the essential world of adults and she had no friends and was not permitted to be a child. I love how no matter how perfect and rigid the mother tries to be, there is always one tiny piece of hair sticking out of place against her forehead. I thought that this was very poetic. And in the end when she finally learns from her daughter, she is wearing casual clothes to show that she has calmed down. I also thought it was very sad and beautiful when the aviator left the mother an illustrated apology note and a rose to try to make amends for the damage he had done to their house. She read the note over and then immediately disposed of it as well as the rose as they were not "essential" to her. This is the mother tossing away his attempt to connect with her.I personally feel that The Little Prince represented The Aviator's inner child, I do not believe he was actually a separate entity at all. We see in the very beginning that The Aviator used to love to create drawings that no one understood. The very first thing The Little Prince asks the aviator to do when he crashes in the Sahara dessert is to draw him something. I think that the aviator's troubled mind upon waiting for rescue or death conjured the image of his former self to comfort him since he was all alone. The Little Prince asks the aviator to draw him a sheep which is often symbolic of being a conformist or "part of the herd." I believe that the little prince is killed by the snake in the dessert, or at least the idea of him is. The aviator's drawings in the beginning depicted creatures being swallowed whole by snakes and to me this seems like what happened to the little prince. But it was only a shell, and as the little prince said, "No one is sad over old shells." So the aviator fixes his plane and moves on, but never forgets the little prince.We see the dangers of growing up too fast and also of never growing up in this movie. It was very unhealthy for the little girl to be so involved in the adult world already, her mom talking to her at length about work problems and her being able to file police reports. It was also just as unhealthy for the aviator to still be acting like a child. He could have killed the little girl several times, particularly when they are both beholding a butterfly and he runs the stop sign. Most of the adults were depicted as villains, people who had entirely forgotten their former selves and who no longer possessed love or hope for anything or anyone. "Growing up is not the problem, forgetting is." The key is to grow up but to hold on to what is most essential, what cannot be seen with the eye, but with the heart instead.Even though this movie and book are dubbed a fantasy, I am fairly certain that everything that happened with the little girl taking the plane to find the little prince is just a result of the fall that she took. I do not think that the little prince was real, I think it is just the idea of him that is important. She imagined him lost on a planet of adults who had corrupted him and now she must save him and reawaken hope in his heart. It is important to her that Mr. Prince remembers who he is because she is so terrified that she will suffer the same fate, especially when the aviator leaves her. It was beautiful when he turned back into the little prince in the end and she was able to finish the aviator's story for him before his ended. I loved all of the symbolism in this movie and the all star cast. Paul Rudd's scene with the little girl in the end when the rose dies is particularly heart wrenching. James Franco also spoke very tenderly as the fox. Human connections are certainly what is most essential in this world.

The movie version of The Little Prince is a travesty, encouraging little girls to lie, disobey and disrespect their parents, like a Disney princess. The movie version is selling little girls a world where they get what they want with moxie, inexperience and a little magic, just like the Disney princesses do. None of this has anything to do with the story of The Little Prince, which was artlessly appended to this Disney ripoff.The book, The Little Prince is not a children's book. It is philosophic and traumatic, neither of which should be applied to children. Although it artfully depicts death as a spirit leaving a body, it does not pretend to be a book on theology. When we see someone die, we know that the spirit is gone. Where the spirit goes is theological in nature, and the book covers this only in passing. In the book, we are free to assume that the Little Prince is back on his little asteroid with his Beloved, staying busy and enjoying eternity. The next morning the body of the Little Prince was gone; does this remind you of anyone special? The book makes no claim to be a reinterpretation of the Passion, but it is a useful reference for anyone who has to explain death to a child. We all die. We all leave our body and go to meet our Beloved. We who love Logos will remain alive. One day we will be given our eternal body and we won't have to wander any more.The book The Little Prince allegorizes the beauty and errors of the universe with humor and wry philosophical ponderings. The movie eviscerates the Little Prince and twists his guts into a million Disney rebellions. Did I mention it was a travesty of the book? There oughta be a law.

The Little Girl lives with The Mother. Her father is absent with the exception of his gifts of glass globes. She fails her interview for the prestigious Werth Academy. Her mother moves them into the wealthy neighborhood for the school. Their home is the cheapest due to their eccentric new neighbor. It's the summer holidays and mother has set a scheduled regiment for the little girl to prepare for her long march to adulthood. Their neighbor is The Aviator. He becomes the Little Girl's best friend as he describes his adventures with The Little Prince.I read The Little Prince for french class. It was tough enough to translate the thing. Plenty went over my head especially something like the Rose. One needs to appreciate the adult relationship being portrayed and also its autobiographical nature. The essentially literary nature of the book makes it more than a children's book. It's never been for the littlest kids although they probably like the pictures. The film takes the essentials of the book and adapts it into a cinematic Pixar-level movie. It's really the best of both worlds being combined here.There is a switch in the world around the start of the third act. It concerned me a little about the execution. It would have been a lot easier to switch to the book instead. The Fox probably kept my faith with his humor. He is hilarious. Mr. Prince is a little problematic. It's like making Peter Pan grow up and I didn't appreciate that in Hook. However, it is all very audacious and it pulls everything together in the end.There are many complaints about what this movie isn't. It isn't a kiddie movie and this isn't trying to be an "Ice Age" movie. It's digging into deeper material and I compare it more with "Where the Wild Things Are". That movie is definitely too dark for little kids. This isn't a simple transcription of the book. The book is unlikely to be good narrative for a two hour movie. This is able to translate this literary classic into a compelling movie structure. It's a heart-warming coming-of-age story as long as one haven't forgotten.

A great take on a classic book. I thought that the transitions between the main characters (the little girl and her mother) and the telling of the Little Prince by the old man would be choppy but it fit in almost perfectly. Deep messages of what matters most, simplifying life, etc. are found throughout making it a truly worthwhile experience. The sophistication and maturity of dialogue between the Prince and the other characters creates a touching atmosphere without the "cheesiness" of your typical feel good film. Although slow moving at parts, it is captivating enough to never really be boring. Excellently inspiring, overall.