In O menino e o mundo (The Boy and the World), a new animated feature from Brazilian director Alê Abreu, the simple lines and naive, exuberant colors we often associate with children’s drawings come to vivid life in a unique take on the genre that is unmistakably Brazilian.
This modern day fable follows the adventures of a young boy who leaves his small village after the death of his father only to find himself immersed in a chaotic and often confusing modern world filled with strange creatures, fantastic machines and giant, impersonal monuments to human progress.
Filled with idiosyncratic plays on perspective and employing a variety of techniques — including collages pasted alongside the thick, waxy lines of Crayola crayons — O menino e o mundo feels like stepping into the imagination of a child set to a joyous samba soundtrack.
With animation powerhouses like Pixar and the various Japanese studios cranking out their signature brands with little variation, O menino e o mundo promises to be a fresh, renovating approach to animation that will undoubtedly have you grinning ear-to-ear and swaying your hips along the way.
O menino e o mundo opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on December 11, 2015.