Pil's Adventures

« Naturally, I wanted to follow the line of TAT productions, and the idea of a film with an underdog main character appealed to me and corresponded to the studio's crazy heroes. I also wanted to break the stereotypes of medieval heroes. Jean-François Tosti and I talked a lot about Princess Bride, which has an ironic tone and twists the clichés. So I imagined a first-degree adventure with a quest, which is not parodic at all, and then I grafted the irony of Princess Bride onto it thanks to an "anti-princess" character who goes against the clichés. I wanted to wink at an adult audience, while creating engaging characters with a strong story. » - Julien Fournet

We must admit that we are rarely surprised at the cinema, not that each of the films we discover seems to be the long version of their trailer, but rather that we sometimes arrive by dint of seeing the excellent American (Blue Sky Studios Inc., DreamWorks Animation, Fox Animation Studios, Twentieth Century Studios Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animations, Warner Bros. Animation...) and Japanese (Ghibli...) that animation studios in France can be able to hold the comparison but especially to bring an additional touch of emotions and inventiveness to the French. Certainly, the animation studio TAT productions created by David Alaux, Éric Tosti and Jean-François Tosti stands out as one of the most promising French animation studios to take a place next to these behemoths. After having produced short films, commercials and animated series, TAT productions has acquired a solid enough base to launch into the production of feature films. After Les As de la jungle (2017), Terra Willy, planète inconnue (2019), Pil's Adventures is their third feature film and above all their most successful to date.

Written and directed by Julien Fournet, Pil's Adventures imposes itself from its first minutes as a totally immersive entertainment in which we are plunged into the middle ages. While Walt Disney Animations, Pixar Animations and DreamWorks Animation dominate the current market with perfectly mastered animated films, both in terms of animation and scenario, Pil (Pil's Adventures) finds the right approach to offer us a perfectly mastered animated film. From the very first shot we are completely transported into a universe that we love and that we feel is an important part of our story. The director and scriptwriter Julien Fournet has perfectly understood that an animated film must appeal to a wide audience, both children and adults. It is therefore not a coincidence that his film cleverly tackles strong themes such as solidarity, exclusion, surpassing oneself and especially the fact of building a real family. 

We discover a young orphan girl, intrepid, cunning and resourceful Fil who has learned to survive alone with only her weasels as company in the streets of the city of Roc-en-Brume. As the castle's regent has decided to implement a Machiavellian plan to take power by turning Roland, the heir to the throne, into a chapoul (half cat, half hen), Pil will have to embark on a great adventure accompanied by Grobar (a guard who dreams of becoming a knight), Rigolin (a young jester who has invented a sock puppet to whom he talks all the time), Roland transformed into a chapoul, and his inseparable weasels. Their adventure will forever change their lives and unite them in a strong bond.

The director and scriptwriter Julien Fournet has perfectly understood what a great animated film should be and Pil also shows a real maturity for this animation studio. The numerous action scenes are perfectly fluid and the story holds its breath with a rhythm as sustained as mastered. Watching Pil (Pil's Adventures) is simply like discovering a great adventure movie with its share of heroic scenes, its occult forces, its witch, its colorful villain.  It is impossible not to think of the films Knight (A Knigth's tale) (2001), the Lord of the Rings saga by Tolkien, Princess Bride (1987) but also the universe of the cinematographic saga Shrek with its monsters and its settings suitable for living great adventures. The many moments of comedy work wonderfully and come to soften some distressing moments that it is the fact of being in a forest considered as dangerous or facing a gigantic creature.

If the proper of a great animated film is to know how to make us laugh, to move us and to transport us in a magic universe, Pil's Adventures is an undeniable artistic success. In the same way we can only salute TAT productions for staying focused on the story and not having used popular actors' voices to mask a scenaristic or visual weakness as it is too often the case in French animated films. Not only is the main female character, Pil, endearing, but she also shows great courage and strength of character. We can only encourage you to discover this film when it is released on August 11th.

Pil's Adventures
Written and Directed by Julien Fournet
Produced by Jean François Tosti , David Alaux et Éric Tosti
Starring Kaycie Chase, Paul Borne, Julien Crampon, Pierre Tessier, Gauthier Battoue, Barbara Tissier, Emmanuel
Curtil, Enrique Carballido, Laurent Maurel, Martine Irzenski, Jérémy Prévost
Music by Olivier Cussac
Edited by Jean Christian Tassy , Hélène Blanchard, Magali Batut
Production companies : TAT Productions
Distributed by SND (France)
Release date : August 11, 2021 (France)
Running time : 89 minutes

Seen on August 01, 2021 (press screener)

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