The Red Turtle

A bit of a disappointment. This reeks of metaphor and parable, yet it is utterly indecipherable. Without any deeper meaning all that remains is a puzzling, dialog-less kids movie. In an age where traditionally animated movies are like white tigers, it's all the more agonizing to encounter a dud.

It's beautiful all right, but the "story" felt utterly pointless and the slow pacing was numbing.

I'd been curious to see a feature from De Wit, and The Red Turtle really is very much in the spirit of his short films, for better and for worse. I like the first half hour best; after that I had mixed feelings. Sometimes it was so cheesy it seemed like Disney or Pixar took over, but the ending made sense again.

Starts strong, promising to dwell on themes like givennes, existence, earth and loneliness but turns out to be an Abrahamic repetition of the fratricide-marriage-civilization-death chain abandoning its potential to challange the anthropocentric storytelling conventions. Despite its slightly original visual style, ends up as a cliché story.

I was engaged and liked it quite a bit until the turtle changed halfway through. Then it got really boring.

A repetitive and slightly tedious story told in beautiful visuals. I never felt the emotional connection that is required for greater enjoyment and was left with a feeling that this would have worked way better with a 30 minute runtime.

Great first half, mediocre second half.

The movie was extremely pretty. I didn't think the classical belgian drawing style could fit with the japanese animation style, but it turns out they work together really well. The plot however feels empty of any substance. The idea of making the movie a no-dialogue thing was a good call, but the plot just goes in every direction, without any reason to care about the characters.

A sight to behold, in both movements and texture. I can appreciate the purely visual storytelling, but the plot is a little too universalized and generic for its own good.

Was enjoying a survival story then it went all magical and boring.

Definitely not my cup of tea. First couple of minutes were promising but as time goes on story goes to nowhere or goes to the land of boredom.

The first half is a solitary exploration of an unknown and mysterious island, full of eccentric wildlife, gorgeous landscapes, surreal dreams, survivalist terror, and a mystical encounter with a strange red turtle. I loved it. The second half isn't as good, succumbing to sentimentality and the usual tropes of a family drama. Fortunately, the ending is thoughtful and bittersweet, so it wraps up nicely. Plus, there's a reliable thread that runs through the entire film: The animation is lovely.

A simple, touching folk tale with some great surrealist touches that happens to feature perhaps the most beautiful animation I've ever seen in my life. Very few films I've seen have ever featured as many stunning frames as this one.

The story is told with no dialogue, forcing the viewer to absorb the events through simple, but beautifully rendered visual storytelling. While the art and colors used add dimension to this picture, you should also keep an ear out for the sound design, which is nearly as important for conveying some of the movie's most involving moments.

Beautiful albiet overly French (steeped in symbolism, metaphor, etc.) examination of humanity, life, nature and family.

Pestering creature that eventually transforms into a woman thwarts castaway's thoughtfully worked out plan of returning to civilisation in a selfish attempt to alleviate her boredom and loneliness, only to abandon him after he's grown old, weak and impotent. At least there's some stunning animation on display.

Not visually interesting enough to be this slow.

It is a simple and riveting survival story for the first half hour or so. Then it becomes abstract and loses its way.

This is achingly beautiful in its simplicity. It's a story about man & nature and the respect we should extend the creatures and environments around us. There are moments of tenderness that made my heart swell, situations that terrified, and scenes of devastation that left me a blubbery mess. However, everything would have only added up to "good" if not for the immaculate score by Laurent Perez del Mar that pulls all the emotions out of every little scene and reminds us of the true power of art.

Beautifully crafted , an enchanting piece of universal storytelling.

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A relaxing, cozy watch... but what was the point?

Needs more red turtle

I'm a bit torn. At places this film is art. Genuine, effortless and organic art. Other times it tries SOOOO hard to be art. But for appreciators of animation, still a very recommended watch.

Nicely done but extraordinarily conventional

Fransa'dan harika bir animasyon. Fırtınada mahsur kalan bir adam, ıssız adaya düşer. Açık hava hapishanesi gibi duran bu adadan kurtulmak ister. Önüne çıkan engeller, hayata kalmaya karşı direnç gösterir. Kırmızı caretta kaplumbağa ile tanışınca ada ile yaşamaya da alışmaya başlar. Kaplumbağa bir kadına dönüşür. Metaforlara dolu bir animasyon. Yeşilin ve kahverenginin elli tonu.

It is about as commonplace as the 'artsy' animation gets. Exasperating.

The story of man reconnecting with nature and the symbiosis underlying human existence.

Completely impossible to rate as enjoyment or lack of will totally come from viewer's outlook on life...I'd say see reviews for wild variance of opinion but some contain max SPOILERS. One thing all agree on(me too)is animation is simply superb, soundtrack ain't bad as well-important in a 99.9% no dialogue feature. Maybe best described as a New Age fairy tale told in a slow but compelling pace. There's an echo of the selkie fables here, though without lots of the bite - bar one initial scene IMO.

the shape of beach water

Very touching as well as being gorgeously animated and scored.

One of the most beautiful animations you'll ever see.

Spellbinding and intriguing.

With striking and powerful visuals, this is a film that conveys so much without a single line of dialogue being spoken. The animation is beautiful and the story is as sad as it is effective in its delivery. The meaning was a little lost on me, but it didn't stop me from feeling the full effects of the emotions involved. It won't be a film you'll want to watch over and over again, but there's no doubt it's stunning.

A beautiful experience.

Romântico. Espiritualidade: pagã.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRN4GUMugj4

insanely slow, hardly anything ever happens. if you're expecting a full-length "Father and Daughter" quality thing out of this, you'll be sorely disappointed. total waste of good animation.

This is a hard film to rate. I really enjoyed the themes, story, music and striking visuals but there were curtain things that really bothered me about the film that I just couldn't over look. The background visual were very beautifully rendered and seemed hyper real while the living creatures had a Hergé fel to them which I liked however the creatures and especially the 'humans' didn't fit in to their environments. What I mean by this is... [Full review]

pointless and waste of time

Incredible soundtrack! Should have seen this on a big screen, that's my bad.

A mesmerising animation, so simply told but with a profound take on the plight of man and his relationship with nature. Tonally it hits all the right notes, with decent pacing, and all without any need for dialogue! The mystical aspect of the story leads you to ponder the meaning of everything. The score is divine and the art design spectacular - there's no denying this is a lovely looking film. And the emotional connection, while ever-present, rises to a climax of great beauty and sadness.

A beautiful and dreamlike fairy tale. I enjoyed the silent film style.

Another beautifully sad Ghibli entry that dares to depict a profound relationship between man and nature. A castaway tries to leave the island, but a red turtle keeps breaking his raft. A woman comes out of the animal, they live an entire life there, their son grows up and eventually leaves, they all survive a tsunami. Minimal storytelling, maybe following too many arthouse animation patterns, but it ends with a quiet note: man dies, woman lays down besides him and waits for death.

Gorgeous animation elevated an ultimately fruitless story.

Gloriously beautiful animation with equally stunning sound editing and a gorgeous score. But the story is still rather empty - without dialogue, all we see is the "hows" of what the characters do, but rarely the "whys."

French movie copying Japanese style while sticking with their pretentious french obscurity. Pretty though. People who don't like dialogue are in for a treat with this one, and I liked that because there weren't any subtitles.

Envelops you in its world through the sheer force of its aural brilliance and unique eastern/western hybrid animated style. Emotionally potent on a deeply visceral level.

Once the fantastical story gets going, it's rather baffling and somewhat makes some sort of sense when it finishes (maybe) -- I can't imagine trying to explain this to kids, but I'm sure they'd get it more than I did. The animation is uniquely brilliant and helps with this dialogue-less story. If you liked the TV show Lost, you'll probably like this, too (maybe).

Touching... but even I felt too lonely in that environment.

Even if the narrative closes on nothing but universalities, the intermingling of men and turtles creates a deep feeling for life in nature, for the hurt and joy that unites all creatures.