ROBINSON CRUSOE/THE WILD LIFE

Belgium, 2016, 91 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Vincent Kesteloot, Ben Stassen.

The plot of this Belgian animated film would never have crossed the mind of the original author, Daniel Defoe. Yes, the central character is Robinson Crusoe and he is stranded on his island, surviving – but the rest is animated fantasy for the children’s audience.

The film was very vivid in its design, the sea, the island, and the range of animals, especially the villains of the piece, fierce cats.

The film opens with pirates and their discovering an island. They also discover Robinson Crusoe and hang him up to interrogate him. He is then rescued. A bright parrot, with the power of speech, encounter some mice on the pirate ship and office to tell them the story, leading to flashbacks.

Robinson Crusoe has a touch of the dandy, is seasick, and shipwrecked. He is able to retrieve some material from the ship and has his blunderbuss gun. However, two fierce cats, she very dominating, have escaped the wreck and plot to scavenge the animals on the island, defeated at first and relegated to Curse Island, breeding a number of kittens and then going on a final attack.

Crusoe finds quite a range of animals, generally cute, and, able to speak to one another, apprehensive at first, thinking that the parrot has been injured by Crusoe whereas he has actually mended the wing. After some fearful encounters, and the offering by Crusoe biscuits to the animals, they begin to take care of him, finding him food, leading him to water, helping him with the building of the house.

However, the drama of the film is in the attack the cats, quite a lot of action sequences, entanglements of the various animals with the cats – and their ultimate defeat. And, happy ending all round, especially the parrot able to leave to see the world. And, because of the day on which the parrot found Crusoe, his nickname is Tuesday rather than Friday!