Stubs - Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025) English voices: Lily Gilliam, Lucille Ainsworth, Francesca Calo, Page Leong, Jayne Taini. Directed by Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han Screenplay by Liane-Cho Han, Aude Py, Maïlys Vallade, Eddine Noël. Based on the novel The Character of Rain (Métaphysique des tubes) by Amélie Nothomb. Produced by Claire La Combe, Edwina Liard, Henri Magalon, Nidia Santiago. Run time: 78 minutes. Color. France, Belgium Animated. Drama.

Sometimes, it takes awards season to make you aware of the films that were released, which is what brought Little Amélie or the Character of Rain to my attention. This year, it was one of five films nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. That awareness took the film from unknown to one of my favorite animated films of the year and my personal front runner to win that award.

The family at a koo pond from Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.

The story, originally made in French, tells the story of a Belgian family living in Japan, which is an intriguing premise. The family includes Patrick, the father (Brent Mukai ), who is a diplomat; Danièle, the mother (Jessica DiSalvo), a concert pianist; Juliette (Avril Kagan), the eldest daughter; André ( Rhodes Carroll); and a new baby Amélie (Lucille Ainsworth), around who the story is told. When Amelie is born, they’re told by the doctor (Michael C. Pizzuto) that he believes Amélie is in a vegetative state when she’s born and does not react to various stimulations. Amélie (narration voiced by Lily Gilliam) thinks this makes her a god.

Amélie is believed to be in a vegetative state when she is born.

The family, however, still fawns over her, perhaps hoping for a miracle, which happens on her second birthday when an earthquake breaks her out of her silence, but leads to almost constant crying instead. Their landlady, Kashima-san (Page Leong), helps them find a nanny for the girl, Nishio-san (Francesca Calo), who arrives the same day as Patrick’s mother, Claude (Jayne Taini), who brings with her white chocolate. Both the nanny and the grandmother help Amélie develop, though her relationship with Nishio-san lasts longer and teaches her more about life and exposes her to Japanese culture.

The relationship between Nishio-san and Amélie is at the center of the story.

In the end, Amélie will realize that she’s human, but it is the getting to that point that the film’s heart and soul are shown. Life, as Amélie, is full of loss, separation, disappointment and prejudice.

I can only judge the English voice acting but it is good all the way through. I’m not familiar with the voice actors’ previous work, but they are all good in their roles here.

Visually, the film doesn’t look like most animated films, especially those from Hollywood. The 2D digitally animated film looks almost like it’s a moving painting. The film’s core creative team had worked with Rémi Chayé, an animator known for his visually groundbreaking films, and according to Animation Magazine, “carried forward lessons from Long Way North and Calamity, while Chayé himself contributed layout work that added painterly elegance to the final visuals.” The directors were also influenced by, “the painterly textures of Tonko House’s Oscar-nominated animated short The Dam Keeper. Other references included Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata for their atmospheric treatment of childhood and the stark horrors of war, as well as Japanese landscape artists such as Kawase Hasui, the plein-air paintings of Henri Rivière and Jacques Majorelle’s luminous travel sketches, captured on film in Morocco in the Eyes of Majorelle.”

And while the film may not look like your standard Hollywood fare, it’s the emotional core of the film that makes it stand apart. While I definitely enjoyed, for example, Zootopia 2, it doesn’t have the same impact on the viewer as Little Amélie or the Character of Rain does. Animation, which is oftentimes relegated, in people’s minds, as being for children, proves that it can tell stories that are as full of emotion and truths as any live-action film and that the capabilities of the format can enhance storytelling in a way live-action can’t.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is a small film by Hollywood standards, made on a budget of €9.5 million. But it is not the budget that makes a film. While I fear KPop Demon Hunters may win the Oscar, based on the Academy’s track record, I believe Little Amélie or the Character of Rain to be one of the better animated films, both visually and story-wise, of the past few years and I look forward to what these artists may come up with in the future.