Animated film beats with romantic 'Cuckoo-Clock Heart'
Romance is not a good thing when you're a kid with a cuckoo clock for a heart — who knew?
That doesn't stop true love from doing its thing in the animated French film Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, produced by Luc Besson and his wife Virginie Besson-Silla. The movie is co-directed by Mathias Malzieu, the leader of the rock band Dionysos who adapted his own fairy-tale novel and voices the French version of the main character Jack.
Set in 19th-century Scotland, the movie (out on Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday) tells the story of young Jack, a youngster who's born on a day so chilly his heart is frozen. A midwife saves his life by giving him a birdy timepiece for a heart, but also imparts three rules he must follow: Don't touch the clock's hands, don't get angry and don't fall in love.
That latter aspect gets complicated when Jack sees a street-corner singer named Miss Acacia, and he sets off on globe-trotting quest to win her heart — even at the risk of his own breaking.
In this exclusive clip from the movie, a brooding dude is enraptured by the thought of Jack's clockwork ticker but also warns the lovestruck kid about Miss Acacia's seductive ways.
The Blu-ray of the film, with an English voice cast featuring Orlando Seale, Samantha Barks and Michelle Fairley, boasts special features including character vignettes and a featurette on adapting the book to the screen.