A French Toon With an Unforgettable Worldview

The Japan-inclined daughter of a Belgian diplomat, Amélie Nothomb has published several books about her upbringing in Asia, including one in which she boldly channels her inner toddler. In “Métaphysique des tubes” (or “The Character of Rain” in English), Nothomb spends a considerable amount of time thoroughly convinced that she is God. “In the beginning,” opens the memoir, clearly evoking the Good Book. It’s a touch that charmed many in print, but proves tricky to replicate in the otherwise enchanting animated adaptation which premiered at Cannes, delighted Annecy and now finds its way stateside courtesy of Gkids.

As Nothomb remembers it, in those early years, she assumed the universe revolved around her, which makes “Little Amélie” (as the playful toon refers to its big-eyed, bobble-headed title character) a poetic look at the process by which a self-centered European girl born in a foreign land came to understand her place in society. Some of young Amélie’s ideas are quite strange, as when she likens herself to a tube: Food goes in one end and comes out the other. Gross, but easier to accept than the whole God thing (which of course she’ll eventually outgrow).

Where large swaths of the book were dedicated to articulating the mental state of a 2-year-old, the movie embraces a more visual approach, representing the world through Amélie’s eyes. And what captivating eyes they are: hypnotic yellow-green orbs, ringed in emerald! For those keen on surrealistic Belgian reinterpretations of where kids come from, you could find more elegant models in Jaco Van Dormael’s “Toto the Hero” (the movie whose colorful style inspired that other “Amélie”) or “My Life in Pink,” a largely forgotten queer indie ahead of the curve on trans identity.

All of which is to say, “Little Amélie” is hardly alone in offering a fanciful alternative perspective on birds, bees, storks and so forth, though its model…