Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be

Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be (French: Le Petit Nicolas : Qu'est-ce qu'on attend pour être heureux ?) is a 2022 French animated comedy film directed by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre.[1] The film portrays the story of René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé as they create the influential Le Petit Nicolas series of illustrated children's books, blending both scenes that directly adapt vignettes from the books and scenes that depict the real world creation of the books including Goscinny and Sempé interacting with and talking to Nicholas directly.[2]

Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be
FrenchLe Petit Nicolas : Qu'est-ce qu'on attend pour être heureux ?
Directed byAmandine Fredon
Benjamin Massoubre
Written byMichel Fessler
Anne Goscinny
Benjamin Massoubre
Based onLe Petit Nicolas by René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé
Produced byAdrian Politowski
Christel Hénon
Aton Soumache
StarringAlain Chabat
Laurent Lafitte
Simon Faliu
Edited byBenjamin Massoubre
Music byLudovic Bource
Animation byJuliette Laurent
Keelan MacLeod
Julien Maret
Sevan Selvadjian
Production
companies
On Classics (Mediawan)
Bidibul Productions
Distributed byBAC Films
Release dates
  • 20 May 2022 (2022-05-20) (Cannes)
  • 12 October 2022 (2022-10-12) (France)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

The film stars Alain Chabat as Goscinny, Laurent Lafitte as Sempé, and Simon Faliu as Nicholas. Goscinny's daughter, Anne Goscinny, was one of the writers.[3]

The film premiered as a special screening at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.[3]

Critical response

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Allan Hunter of Screen Daily praised the film, calling it a charming animation with "some of the style of Sylvain Chomet", and writing that it "unfolds at a cracking pace, mirroring the boisterous, fizzing energy of a curious young mind. Ludovic Bource’s jaunty jolly score propels everything along, finding a musical style for every mood. Jean-Jacques’s wide-eyed arrival in Paris plays like a dynamic Gene Kelly song’n’dance number, there is a tango for René’s time in Argentina, a brassy exuberance to match the sense of expectation when René arrives in New York for the first time."[4]

Kaveh Jalinous of Under the Radar wrote that "Little Nicholas’ animation style, primarily reliant on watercolor, is the perfect visual accompaniment to the film’s breezy narrative. The animators’ minimalist usage of colors not only makes each shot look as if it was ripped out from the books themselves, but also draws heightened attention to both the forms of compositions and the contrast between filled-in spaces and empty ones. The simple everyday animation, especially paired with the film’s narrative, reinforces that Little Nicholas is for everyone."[2]

Peter Debruge of Variety was more mixed, praising the story vignettes but writing that the "real-world" segments lacked dramatic impact.[1]

Awards

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Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2022 Best Animated Feature Film Amandine Fredon, Benjamin Massoubre Won [5]
European Film Awards 10 December 2022 Best Animated Feature Film Nominated [6]
Lumières Award 16 January 2023 Best Animated Film Won [7]
César Awards 24 February 2023 Best Animated Film Nominated [8]
Annie Awards 25 February 2023 Best Animated Feature, Independent Nominated [9]

References

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  1. ^ a b Peter Debruge, "‘Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be’ Review: The Pint-Size Hero of a Cartoon ‘The 400 Blows’ Meets His Makers" Archived 2023-06-05 at the Wayback Machine. Variety, 19 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b Kaveh Jalinous, "Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be" Archived 2023-08-10 at the Wayback Machine. Under the Radar, 21 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b Lise Pedersen, "The Little Nicholas Meets His Makers in Cannes World Premiere Animation Film" Archived 2023-08-10 at the Wayback Machine. Variety, 19 May 2022.
  4. ^ Allan Hunter, "'Little Nicholas - Happy As Can Be’: Review". Screen Daily, 20 May 2022. Archived 2022-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Valerie Complex, "‘Little Nicholas – Happy As Can Be’ Takes Top Honor At Annecy International Animation Film Festival" Archived 2023-06-02 at the Wayback Machine. Deadline Hollywood, 18 June 2022.
  6. ^ "The European Film Awards announce their nominees in the Comedy, Animated Feature Film and Short Film categories" Archived 2022-10-20 at the Wayback Machine. Cineuropa, 19 October 2022.
  7. ^ Rebecca Leffler, "Dominik Moll’s ‘The Night Of The 12th’ scoops best film prize at France’s Lumiere Awards" Archived 2023-01-21 at the Wayback Machine. Screen Daily, 16 January 2023.
  8. ^ Jamie Lang, "‘Ernest & Celestine,’ ‘My Sunny Maad,’ ‘Little Nicholas’ Score French Academy César Nominations" Archived 2023-06-02 at the Wayback Machine. Cartoon Brew, 25 January 2023.
  9. ^ Terry Flores, "Led by ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,’ Netflix Dominates Annie Awards Nominations" Archived 2023-06-15 at the Wayback Machine. Variety, 17 January 2023.
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