Manou at the seagull school – Manou the Swift (2019)

Directed by: Christian Haas, Andrea Block | 89 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Nasrdin Dchar, Jelka van Houten, Leopold Witte, Cystine Carreon, Sander Gillis, Rogier Komproe, Yaron Mesika

‘Storks’ (2016), ‘Rikkie the stork’ (2017), ‘Pluisje: dare to fly’ (2018). When you see this title in a row, you can’t help but conclude that birds are currently ‘hot’ in animation land. Later this summer ‘Duck Duck Goose’ (2018) will be released and now there is ‘Manou op de seagull school’ (2019). There are quite a few parallels to be drawn between the different stories. Just like in ‘Rikkie the stork’, ‘Manou at the seagull school’ also revolves around a bird that grows up with a different species. Manou is a young swallow who, after the tragic death of his parents, ends up in a seagull’s nest. Yves, the leader of the gull colony, and his wife Blanche struggle to lay their own eggs and welcome Manou as their own child. Not much later, the family is still expanded, when Luc is born. So far nothing wrong. Manou learns everything you need to learn as a young gull, although he does have some difficulties with a number of things. Swallows naturally flutter their wings more than seagulls, which allow themselves to be carried by the wind. And Manou doesn’t like water at all, so the swimming lessons are quite dramatic. It helps that his father leads the seagull school and regularly keeps his hand above his head. During the flying competition Manou gets the chance to prove himself; he outsmarts all the seagulls and that makes him deputy colony leader. But with the responsibility that comes with it comes the necessary difficulties. Things go wrong while guarding the eggs: the rats steal an egg and Manou is held responsible for this and is ostracized from the group. He seeks connection with the swallows, led by the beautiful Kalifa, but that is not without a struggle, so he makes it his mission to fight for more tolerance and cooperation between the bird species. They need each other more than ever.

So many species, so many character traits. Perhaps that makes birds a popular and interesting subject for animation filmmakers. ‘Manou op de gullsschool’ is the first animation film from the German Luxx Studios, a company that specializes in visual effects and has produced work for films such as ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ (2013) and ‘Independance Day 2: Resurgence’ ( 2016). With that knowledge in mind, it’s no surprise that the visuals in ‘Manou op de gulls school’ – or at least the backgrounds – look really fantastic. The story is set somewhere on the southern French coast; we know that without being told, purely because the characteristic atmosphere of the sea, fishing villages and boulevards speaks from all sides of the animation. The landscape is sketched in an almost photo-realistic way. The contrast with the somewhat simplified bird figures is great. The gulls and swallows are much more crude and caricatured, not to mention the evil rats and the comically intended ‘sidekick’ Parcival, an overgrown Brazilian guinea fowl who escaped the eye of the market trader and has since been on the local market. graveyard lives. They are so exaggerated that it looks like they don’t belong in an otherwise hyper-realistic setting. Not just the characters, but the story as well. Of course, the call for more tolerance is very important to pass on to the youthful target group, we can’t object to that. Nevertheless, too little creativity has been used to shape this message. The dialogues lack a certain urgency; of many scenes we have no idea what purpose they serve. Take, for example, the – incidentally beautifully filmed – flying competition between the young gulls; it takes a while before we realize the importance associated with this, and that scene does not stand alone. Also the use of the music is not always effective and here and there even disturbing.

Young viewers will undoubtedly enjoy ‘Manou op de gulls school’, an animated film that is certainly not bad, but which could (and should) have done a lot more in terms of originality, coherence and effectiveness. And no matter how young they may be, children will also wonder whether they have not already seen this film, because the parallels with films such as ‘Rikkie the stork’ and ‘Pluisje’ are not to be missed.