“Persepolis” was the third film nominated for Best Animated Feature last year (along with “Ratatouille” and “Surf’s Up”).
The movie comes from a graphic novel, written by Marjane Satrapi. The story follows her life as a young girl growing-up in the country of Iran from the late 1960’s to the early 80’s. This was a difficult time in Iran because of wars and the country’s leaders, who were not kind to the people. We get to know Marjane and her family as they try to deal with many tough situations.
“Persepolis” is a foreign language film. So make sure you get a good seat so you can read the subtitles, unless you know French. This was my first experience with subtitles in a theater and it wasn’t very difficult to read and follow the story at the same time. I know some people don’t like subtitles but it would be a shame to miss a good foreign film because you didn’t give it a try.
The best things about “Persepolis” are the story and the basic, but very effective, hand drawn animation. The movie is a graphic novel come to life. More sophistificated animation simply would not have worked.
And there is plenty of humor in the film, especially in the first half when Marji is a young girl.
“Persepolis” is rated PG-13 because of violent images of war and death and other adult themes. Most kids probably won’t be interested in seeing it, but those who are also need to be good readers.
On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, the Oscar-nominated “Persepolis” gets a B.