The Philosophy of The Little Prince and Use of “Framing” as Aesthetic Strategy in the 2015 Film Version

초록

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 popular novella The Little Prince is a modern day classic that is an introspection on the values and philosophy sought after by individuals and society, as well as a philosophical tale to be read by both children and adults. The 2015 animated film version of the same title, directed by Mark Osborne, introduces a protagonist merely named “the little girl” as a character of our own contemporary times who does not appear in Saint-Exupéry’s original. Her character is developed by interaction with another character of “the old man” whom the audience soon realizes is the pilot/narrator from the original story, now aged and living next door to the new protagonist. The narrative begins as the old man befriends the little girl by sharing his story about the little prince he once met in his younger days. The result is a film that has two separate narratives—one being the original novel and the other being the new narrative within which the original story is told. In order to reconcile the two storylines, the film essentially takes form of what is called a “rahmennovelle” (or “play-within-play”) that installs a “frame” of sort to keep the original and new film narratives apart and effectively deliver the intended story to the audience. The current paper will be an examination of the film’s aesthetic strategy of “framing.” Within this structure, the original novella’s storyline is preserved “within frame” and visually denoted by the use of paper-based stop-motion animation technique, while the new narrative with the little girl as protagonist is kept “outside frame” and distinguished by its use of computer generated images to render the animation. In the end, the use of framing is quite effective in preserving the narrative of the original novella while also introducing new content that only the medium of animation could deliver. The strategy of using frames also allows for the philosophy of the original novella to be properly disseminated and understood by the film audience, while also adding a dimension of defamiliarization by allowing the audience to newly discover the philosophical aspects of the original through the eyes of the little girl struggling with our own modern day realities. The resulting film is one that is important as an example of adopting original classics into new mediums, for both its achievements as well as shortfalls, all of which warrants deeper examination. The current paper will also state that while the use of frames is important in protecting the integrity of the original, the film’s true power and uniqueness is demonstrated when the two narratives on either side of the frame are combined half way through. Here, the motif of “death” is used as a trigger for breaking the frame. Finally, the current paper will look into whether the aesthetic strategy of using frames and its latter frame-breaking was fully able to achieve its intended effects.

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