Perfect cast and a good story

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.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I was told that this movie had a rating of only 30% on RottenTomatoes, but last time I checked it was a massive 74%! I enjoyed this movie, although I will admit it was clichéd at times. It tells the story of a girl who escapes from an orphanage to become a ballerina in Paris. The characters are quite likeable and the animation is very nice. What I like the most is how realistic this film is. It's rare that you see an animated film that's completely normal.It turns out the rich bully is only that way because of her mother. Dang, I've seen this happen in "Gravity Falls" and "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic", so it must be a trope by now. Minor character Nora steals every scene she's in with funny dialogue. I'm glad I know my history because the movie got a lot of things wrong about the year 1879. It's still a beautiful film that really is pretty unique. Not one of the best movies ever made, but definitely good. ***

I have no idea why they started the film as they did. The starting scene is just nothing new, childish, and makes the film seem for younger audiences. I suspect that someone told them they needed to start with an exciting scene with lots of action, so this is what happened... Nevermind the beginning, once the kids get to Paris things start to shape up and an actual narrative emerges. Nothing too revolutionary here, in terms of story or plot, but solid work.

Orphan Felicie lives for dancing, which doesn't always ender her to the nuns who run the orphanage. She runs away to Paris and manages to join the Paris Opera Ballet, making an enemy of Camille and, especially, Camille's mother. With the lead role in The Nutcracker at stake, Felicie has to pick her steps very carefully.This French-Canadian CGI feature proceeds exactly as you would expect it to, with Felicie meeting jeopardy at every turn yet, somehow, overcoming all obstacles through her own endeavours and with the help of friends. At no point was there a single moment where I thought "Well, I wasn't expecting that."But this is not a fair criticism. As a solo male cinemagoer of mature years, I have sat among audiences where I did not belong - raunchy middle-aged matrons in Magic Mike, knicker-wetting teenage girls in Twilight - but I have seldom felt more out of place than among a cinema full of pree-teen little girls from ballet schools. Yet they are the audience at whom this film is aimed.And, on that basis, it is very good. Voiced in the English language version by Elle Fanning, Felicie is a nicely realised audience-identification figure: likeable, a little bit naughty at times, bags of pluck and application, she is so well presented that I identified with her, and I am as far outside the target demographic as it is possible to be!The dancing is also nicely done and takes advantage of being animation in order to push it beyond reality, not to the extent that it becomes outlandishly realistic, but enough to give it a "Wow!" factor.Camille's mother is a psychopathic attempted murderer, but we'll gloss over that, shall we?This is a very effective - and enjoyable - movie for little ballet-dancing girls, and I enjoyed it quite a bit myself. I'm not sure what that says about me, though....

Just because a theme is timeless doesn't mean you should expect it to work every time. "Ballerina" (or "Leap!" for the English title) is another Cinderella story crossed with a sports/competition-themed narrative, delivering the oh-so cherished message that a passion is worth fighting for no matter what, and that all it takes is to put your heart in it. Fine, tell me something I didn't know.At first, it looked like something I could really enjoy, Felicie, the 11-year old orphan girl dreams to become a ballerina then thanks to a strike of luck (of the sneaky sort but I liked it) , she finds a way to the Opera, then a mysterious cleaner with the grace of a ballet dancer but a limp that screams "failed dream" puts her up, and trains her.And then, well, I quickly realized that there was nothing in the film, I hadn't seen before. Except maybe for the superb rendition of a 3D Paris circa 1880's (when the Eiffel Tower was in construction) and a magnificent use of lighting during the dance sequences. Let's make it clear, the animation is top notch and has nothing to envy from a Pixar movie. But a lesser look with a better story would have been better, Felicie's journey doesn't do justice to its mesmerizing visuals and can only offer a series of predictable plot elements where the heroine will learn about losing and falling at least ten times before making a climactic grand jeté or spinning on a roof. It doesn't even do justice to the character of Felicie who seems to have a certain edge over the usual heroines, she's not perfect, she lies, she might even sound too "modern" for the film, but overall, her actions are only commanded by the usual script requirements whose purpose is to postpone the inevitable triumph, much to our frustration.We know there will be a final showdown between Felicie and her nemesis, rich blonde girl who's pushed by her tyrannical mother, we know that it will all be a matter of "heart" rather than technical or physical training, and there will also be a moment where Felicie will say one word too many (to hurt Odette) and get punished by Karma. I expected better than refusing to practice the night before the final test just because the Russian jock told her she was "unique" and wanted to go out for the night, and of course, she had to tell her Odette that she wasn't her mother. Still, it took was to say "I'm sorry" but this film is as dully predicable as Rocky sequel. They have to make the right mistakes at the right moments."Ballerina" features other clichés such as the good-looking boyfriend, of course the fat insecure sidekick (with glasses) and the villainous mother who goes literally over the top once the film had founded a rather good resolution. I was wondering whether they needed some extra time or if the directors felt the film lacked action but they didn't even try to be innovative by keeping focused on the dance. No, had to be a " Fatal Attraction" confrontation with a Deus Ex Machina last-minute rescue from Felicie's best friend. Did the mother really think she could kill Felicie and get away with it? It's a real shame that a movie that could have encouraged vocations and provide many lessons about life had to be so formulaic to the point of emulating action movies.I don't mean it had to be like "Black Swan" either but a better effort on the writing could have really helped it. And another aspect that bothered me, I don't know if it's also the case for the English version but the French version used an adult voice that was too low-pitched for a little girl, not to mention that she was talking like a 2000's teenager even saying such expressions as OK that could have been said by a girl in the 1880's Paris. Well, maybe that anachronism was deliberate and I'm looking too far but that's because I really wanted to enjoy it. The film successes in the most difficult part, it looked great but it should have embraced its own message about discipline and write more extra drafts to add some density to the story and makes the characters or the situations a little less two dimensional.