Unlike most reviews I do, I watched this film on a TV. I also watched this film in its original language (with subtitles), however, Netflix does have an English option with Dev Patel as its lead. I would recommend sticking to the French as the voices match the aesthetic and music better.
One of the great film betrayals is the idea that animation is only for kids films. The idea is that it’s obviously make belief and therefore, no self respecting adult could consider an animated film a masterpiece. Well, this is wrong. Spider-man into the Spider-verse is one of the most creative superhero films around. WALL-E is a gorgeous emotional tale for everyone with mature themes to think about. Then you have true the great animated film Spirited Away. In fact, it’s not a great animated film, it’s just a great film, full stop. Animation creates a contract between writer and viewer in which the latter suspends their disbelief, leading to more abnormal and creative ways to write. This is when animation is done right. Anyway, now we have removed any inhibitions around the genre, lets move on…
At the time of writing, it’s been 6 days since I watched I Lost My Body (or J’ai perdu mon corps), yet I still remember most of it. It’s a film with a sense of familiarity yet difference at the same time. We start with a hand escaping from the fridge. What we can tell about it straight away is that it is looking for its body, so it scuttles away like an insect using its fingers for legs. At the same time, we are introduced to Naofel (Hakim Faris/(Dev Patel)), who we see as a young boy growing up. There is a lot of focus on his hand as you see him use it in a variety of places and each texture he feels or interacts with is done in a way which shows said hand as sentient. It’s pretty obvious from early on, that he’s going to lose said hand at some point. So we end up with time jumps between the story of how he loses his hand and the story of his hand trying to find him.
Read Handy Review
The Film Ramble 