
Le Petit Prince
In the gray, foggy urban jungle, the beautiful little girl’s eyes hold no desire or joy. She follows her mother through the shadows of steel and concrete, stepping in line with society’s predetermined rules. Her future seems to be already planned and sealed, and even her birthday gift fails to surprise her. In an effort to get into a good school, the mother and daughter move to a detached house in the suburbs, next to a dilapidated house that stands in stark contrast to its surroundings. One day, a propeller from an airplane suddenly crashes through the wall, sparking a friendship between the girl and the strange old man next door. The elderly man claims to have once been a pilot, and in his youth, he crash-landed in the desert, where he met a little prince with a pure heart. As the girl listens to the old man’s tales of a world filled with fairy-tale colors, she finds herself gradually captivated… This film is based on the classic, eponymous work by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
User Reviews
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Les classiques du Petit Prince
The fox said, "To me, you are just a little boy, like all the other thousands of little boys, no different at all. I don’t need you. You don’t need me. To you, I’m just a fox, no different from the thousands of other foxes. But if you tame me, then we’ll need each other. To me, you’ll be unique in my world; and to you, I will be the only one in your world."
"If you say you’ll come at four o'clock, I’ll start to be happy from three o'clock. The closer it gets, the more excited I’ll be. When it’s four o'clock, I’ll be restless, and I’ll realize the value of happiness. But if you come at any random time, I won’t know when to prepare my heart to welcome you."
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," the Little Prince continued to say to them. "No one will die for you. Of course, my rose, a mere passerby would think she is like you. But she, alone, is more important than all of you, because she is the one I’ve watered. She is the one I placed under the glass dome. She is the one I protected with the screen. She is the one I exterminated the caterpillars for (except for two or three, to become butterflies). I’ve listened to her complaints and her vanity, and sometimes, I’ve listened to her silence. She is my rose."
"Without traveling the world, we wouldn’t know what our spirit and emotions are attached to. But once we’ve traveled the world, we find that we can never return to that beautiful place again. When we begin to seek, we’ve already lost, and if we don’t start seeking, we’ll never realize how precious everything around us is."
I have always believed that a person can live simply and innocently only because countless others have guarded that simplicity with a greater cost.
The world is cold, but The Little Prince is warm.
A “Kung Fu Panda” mastermind creates a film based on a French classic, one that has a reading rate “second only to the Bible,” and moves the hearts of adults all over the world — this is what has recently happened with The Little Prince.
What is unique about the movie The Little Prince is that, although it adds a complete new storyline based on the original book, the subtle sadness and the yellowed feeling of an old storybook in the film make everyone feel as though they are reading The Little Prince, even experiencing the sensation of opening the book for the first time.
The fairy tale The Little Prince is, at its core, a story of evading war — it was the shame and fear following France’s defeat in World War II that prompted Saint-Exupéry to write this most sorrowful yet most moving fairy tale in 1942.
When Mark Osborne made the film, he turned The Little Prince into a fairy tale dedicated to all adults. As we adults struggle to survive in the cruel world of adulthood, The Little Prince becomes the childhood era we can never return to. It moves us because we know that we can never become the little prince again.
When watching the film, don’t be surprised if the children remain calm while adults cry their eyes out. The movie’s bittersweet emotion is not aimed at children, but at adults.
As the weather grows colder, this is truly the best season to watch The Little Prince.
Because the colder the world gets, the warmer The Little Prince feels.
Mark Osborne, upon hearing that a Hollywood director was going to adapt The Little Prince, probably imagined that all French people must have been in despair. Their worries were the same as those of Chinese audiences concerned about adaptations of Journey to the West: “Ruining our childhood!” Moreover, adapting a classic like The Little Prince is never a thankless task, and it often gets harsh reviews.
But the result was: All the viewers were moved to tears by the film. This must be the animated film this year that has garnered the most tears worldwide.
When the film screening ended at the Cannes International Film Festival, nearly 2,000 viewers and media members stood up unanimously, clapping long and hard to pay tribute to the filmmakers. Applauding a film in Cannes has become the most classic measure of a movie's success. You can buy anything with money, but you can’t buy applause in Cannes. The unrelenting applause brought the director, Mark Osborne, and others present to tears.
The story is actually very simple, almost cliché, and it’s definitely not a direct adaptation of the original book. It’s a story about the friendship between an elderly man and a young girl, which leads to the story of The Little Prince. At the start of the movie, the pilot from the original book is now old. One day, the “top student” girl next door receives a paper airplane with illustrations from The Little Prince, and the old man tells her the story of meeting the little prince in the Sahara desert. The fairy tale unfolds like a lyrical piece.
Many people view the movie’s original story as an adaptation, but to me, it’s more of a continuation. The director has written a sort of sequel and then combined it with the original story. This creates a relationship between the original and the sequel, taking the audience into the pilot’s perspective. In watching the movie, we become that elderly man, striving with all his might to return to the desert, to see the little prince again.
In adapting this French philosophical fairy tale, Mark Osborne’s most clever move was to present the original story within the movie as a play within a play, using origami static animation. He restrained the typical American emotional manipulation, and successfully integrated DreamWorks and Pixar’s visual style and narrative approach into the story.
In this French animated film, we can easily spot the classic Pixar animation style — telling two stories in one movie: one for children, and one for adults. The part for children is obvious, telling the story of a young girl and an elderly man searching for the little prince. The adult part, however, is filled with helplessness, sorrow, and mixed emotions, meant for those who have at least somewhat come to understand the meaning of mediocrity and the despair of life. In the young girl’s storyline, the tone is warm, the story is charming, full of dialogue and humor; while in the little prince’s part, the tone is cooler, the story warm but tinged with sadness, and the color palette evokes the feeling of the original illustrated book. This part is clearly a fairy tale meant for adults.
From a film adaptation perspective, Mark Osborne has nearly completed an almost impossible task. The hardest part of adapting The Little Prince was never telling the simple story, but capturing the original’s warmth and melancholy. In this sense, as long as the film could convey half of the feeling from the original, it would undoubtedly be one of the most touching films in the world.
The Little Prince succeeded in this.
Over the past 70 years, The Little Prince has been translated into over 250 languages, and Saint-Exupéry’s image, along with that of the little prince, even appeared on the 50-franc bill. Yet, even today, many still can’t quite grasp what The Little Prince is truly about.
A pilot crashes in the desert and meets a strange boy who says he comes from a distant planet. He has a rose, has tamed a fox, and made a death pact with a snake.
Such a simple story has sparked endless debates: Did the little prince die, or did he return to his planet?
In the movie, the director assembled a dream team from Pixar and DreamWorks, using 3D, hand-drawn animation, and stop-motion techniques to portray the little prince in both origami static animation and 3D. Whenever the story focuses on the little prince, there are long stretches with no dialogue, just visuals and Hans Zimmer’s deeply emotional score. This silent-film approach restores such a vivid little prince and makes the parts with dialogue feel rather dull.
When the stars fill the landfill and the stars are set free, I think I finally understand why everyone loves the little prince: Because he forever lives in a child’s world. He despises the adult world, believes in the goodness of everyone, and even when facing the danger of being bitten by a snake, he still trusts in the beauty of the world. When the stars are released, and the landfill shines with light, Hans Zimmer’s music is both warm and tragic, just like childhood.
Although I know the director is manipulating emotions, I still can’t help but be moved. After all, we all have to grow up. Even though time makes us sigh, the ones who grow will be abandoned by their dreams. Everything changes. But the movie won’t change, and the little prince won’t change.
The ending doesn’t matter much because the story, at its core, tells us this: No matter what world the little prince faces, he always remembers the rose. He refuses to be changed by the world. He remains the little prince forever.
We have all been little princes, but in the end, we all become adults. I think this is the fundamental reason why the novel touches the world. When the movie brings the emotions from the novel to life, it cannot help but move the world again.
From youth to old age, through the mundane and lonely reality of life. Careers are always ongoing, and lovers grow old day by day. Someone makes a fortune in stocks, someone retires early to travel the world, and even the news about a celebrity’s wedding banquet can make us feel frustrated. As for childhood dreams, they are just something we drunkenly reminisce about at class reunions. Who even thinks about them regularly?
But the little prince never forgets.
As readers and viewers, we grow up knowing that the little prince, upon stepping onto Earth, will never return. In fact, he may have really died. But in the story, the little prince encounters all kinds of people — kings, drunks, scholars, businessmen, and the poor lamplighter — people who are as worldly as we are. Compared to the stars and flowers, they care more about money and interests. But the little prince refuses to be changed by this world. He always believes he can go home, always remembers the rose, always believes in the fox, and always trusts the pact with the snake. Even after encountering so many people and things on Earth, the little prince is, and will always be, the little prince.
So, when the little prince walks alone out of the desert in the film, there is no sadness on his face that his dreams can’t be realized. Even when tired, he still holds onto hope. He walks into the earthly prison that traps him, facing a fate he can never return from. But he has never accepted this fate — and in that moment, we cannot help but be moved.
The Little Prince begins by connecting with our childhood hearts, but ultimately strikes adults with the countless years of mediocrity that come after childhood. When I finished watching the film, I thought I had grasped something, but some things disappear as soon as you leave the cinema. But in that moment, it truly moved us.
This is the magic of The Little Prince. We entered the cinema hoping to briefly forget reality. But sorry, The Little Prince isn’t responsible for that. It doesn’t help us forget reality, but it does warm our reality.
The Ruined Little Prince. For those who truly love The Little Prince, rate this movie 1 star.
Rating: 1 star
Reason:
There is so little actual content about the Little Prince. If true Little Prince fans were to edit together the scenes from the original book, it probably wouldn’t even reach 30 minutes. Even these pitiful 30 minutes are sloppy, conceptual, and excerpted in a way that doesn't fit the Little Prince's character or the logic of the original work. The scene where the Little Prince recognizes the terrifying "hat" and shows a surprising understanding that shocks the aviator, which is the moment their relationship begins to grow close, is missing in the movie. The core of the Little Prince's relationship with the rose, "the tenderness hidden behind her affectionate tricks," which is the pivot of his travels and personality, is brushed over with a few lines of off-screen narration in the movie, making it feel jarring. The Little Prince and the fox—about taming, the ritual, and the philosophical sayings the fox tells the Little Prince—are the essence of the original work, yet these parts are reduced to the bare minimum, with muddled logic. The movie is noisy, chaotic, distorted, and a commercial film driven by profit, completely contrary to the temperament of the original author and book. The most unforgivable part is the sequel in the second half! They turned the persistent, melancholic, and spiritual Little Prince into a numb, dirty, materialistic, and pitiful Big Prince, who becomes an object of redemption for a little girl trying hard to get into a prestigious school! Speaking of prestigious schools, I can't believe there’s a subplot about buying into school districts. Is this a Chinese-made movie? Was it created by a "tiger mom, cat dad" team? The marketing said "children laugh like horses, adults cry like dogs," but this is utter nonsense! All the children were crying uncontrollably! While crying, they said: "This isn’t the Little Prince..." True fans of the Little Prince were left devastated. I hope that true Little Prince fans all give this movie one star. This way, we can reveal the real quality of this movie, which has been commercially inflated (five-star ratings everywhere!).
In my mind, this is a response from true fans of the Little Prince, fighting to protect the character from being ruined by commercialization, those who’ve distorted the Little Prince into a redeemed object!
October 23rd
Looking at all the comments, many people say they cling to the original too tightly. So, let’s put the original aside and talk about the movie itself!
Is the movie The Little Prince worthy of five stars? It’s not.
Why? Because a five-star movie has to have an excellent story, but the film’s underlying message is just as important.
For example, Schindler's List and Lust, Caution both contain love stories within different camps. In Lust, Caution, Tony Leung's character kills the woman he loves, while in Schindler's List, Schindler lets the maid go.
This is the difference, this is the level of the theme. This is the brilliance of Schindler's List's theme.
I don’t watch a lot of animated films, but what makes an animated film deserving of five stars? Last year’s Big Hero 6, this year’s Inside Out.
So why does The Little Prince fall short compared to these two films?
The Little Prince’s world is a simple binary: the adult world is seen as the opposite of the children’s world—ugly, evil, dirty, and entirely worthless, and it should be completely eliminated. Not only is this inconsistent with the original, but it’s also forced and abrupt logic.
This is like so many domestic Chinese dramas, where the villains are evil to the extreme, foolish to the extreme, and ugly to the extreme. They’re born to be destroyed, simply to make the main characters look good.
But if the enemies are so stupid, how great are the heroes supposed to be?
Such films reduce the audience’s intelligence to that of an eight-year-old child—good is good, evil is evil.
Good films are not like this. In Big Hero 6 and Inside Out, good and evil, right and wrong, are not opposites—they transform into each other. (I won’t go into details here; go watch it yourself.)
These themes elevate the film to a philosophical level, making it a classic. The movie will give you new perspectives. When you think you know it all, it surprises you, yet it feels entirely logical. Watching this kind of film, we continually challenge our intellectual limits and emotional capacity, reaching the highest levels of enjoyment in both intelligence and emotion.
Let’s put the themes aside and look at The Little Prince. Can it be called a classic? No, it doesn’t deserve to be.
Can it be considered excellent? Maybe four stars.
But it’s not excellent, why?
An excellent movie should tell a great story. Maybe it doesn’t have a great message or philosophical insight, but the story itself should be complete, clear, and without obvious logical holes.
Could someone who has never read the original tell me what the "hat" and the Little Prince’s relationship are at the beginning and end of the movie?
Why is the fox so important to the Little Prince?
What does the aviator mean when he says the Little Prince might forget something—what is it that’s so important?
When the Little Prince says the adult world is strange, does the movie express it as strange or frightening?
Why does the Little Prince become a janitor?
When watching the movie alone, are the above logical points complete? If you have to read the book to understand the movie, then this movie is not complete, is it?
If a movie can’t even tell a complete story, how can it be considered excellent? At best, it’s a passable movie—given the visuals and music, it barely deserves 2-3 stars.
So, why did I give it one star?
Because there are too many ill-intentioned five-star ratings, creating artificially inflated scores. This leads to:
"Actually, the night before buying tickets, I specifically checked the review trends—Douban, Weibo, and various cinema reviews—all gave The Little Prince a high rating of 9.1."
Filled with excitement, I went to watch it, and the viewing experience went like this:
"The movie starts, the plot progresses gradually, the two art styles keep interchanging. My physiological reactions began too—yawning, tearing up, losing focus, playing games, looking at my neighbor who was sleeping soundly, even more comfortably than a cat. In my mind, I kept cursing: I paid 70 bucks for this, and all I got was watered-down chicken soup..."
The above comes from a one-star review on Douban, titled "An animated movie should have some imagination and creativity, right?
Given the inconsistency in the movie market, and because I believe "going to the cinema to watch bad movies is disrespectful to good films," I have a trusted website where I’ve discovered many great films. I’ve seen the impact of inflated scores on my experience, so I’m using one star to balance the misleading ratings and bring the film back to its real level. For those who understand, great. For those who don’t, please step aside.
You may think that whether sheep eat grass doesn’t matter, right?
I’m not going to storm into the five-star review section, am I?
For those who like to attack others, don’t make others pity you. Seeing your venomous heart, it’s clear you're beyond saving…
The fairy tale for adults does not exist.
After watching the movie, I asked him, “Did you fall asleep? I heard you yawning.” He said, “I didn’t fall asleep, it was actually quite good. The little girl is cute, and it’s refreshing. But I felt it was too pretentious, I couldn’t understand it.” Then I asked, “What didn’t you understand?” He replied, “I couldn’t see the boundary between reality and fantasy, it was all over the place. Also, why are businessmen and numbers always portrayed as the bad guys? Is the children’s world really that pure and beautiful? And how could there be a well in the desert, with a bucket and a rope? Where did they come from? Can the gravitational fields between planets just make them fly around the universe like that? It doesn’t make any sense scientifically.”
I was speechless for a moment. A huge sense of sadness washed over me—this person isn’t on the same wavelength. How will we spend the rest of our days together? Then I thought about explaining to him, but isn't it the beauty of literature and art that they erase the boundaries between reality and fantasy? Metaphors are the basic way humans express and understand the world. Numbers are just symbols for metaphors, a storytelling tool. It’s not that numbers and businessmen are necessarily bad, nor is the children’s world perfect and beautiful. Children and adults are just shells, an age distinction. Whether your heart remains pure, or whether you choose to always believe in the power of purity, is up to you. The word essential that keeps appearing in the film is scary because it reduces everyone to a tool or an instrument. This is the coldest part of a commercial society: everyone is just a tool in the process of fulfilling commercial goals, and everything can be measured in money. You have to become an indispensable person, a useful person, even if it’s just a tiny cog. Then you can be “busy,” ignore the people around you, because everything you do is important. You’re consumed by this "busy" mindset to the point where you think the Earth won’t spin without you, forgetting that you’re a person.
Reading a book, listening to a song, appreciating a painting—the best state is when you experience the work before you know the creator’s life story or the various legendary tales about them, or even before you know who the creator is. You are moved by the work itself, laughing, crying, feeling grateful for life, thinking deeply, or feeling like emotions that were once trapped like stars in a cage suddenly burst forth to illuminate the whole dark sky. What does it mean to understand, or not understand? It should not be based on your knowledge of the author, director, or the social context, but rather the work itself. The work is the only direct product that faces its readers and audience. It can touch you purely, making you want to learn about the “hen that laid the egg” afterward, not by first getting to know the hen before appreciating the egg.
The scene where the little girl and the old man are covered by a parachute is beautiful. The old man tells the little girl not to move after she falls to the ground. He walks over, waits for the large patchwork parachute to slowly descend, and gently covers both of them. They both smile. What a beautiful scene.
The king transforms into the elevator operator. “Approach, my subjects!” How ironic, with a little bit of power, one seeks followers. One’s value is only reflected by their subjects. This reminds me of Maugham’s description of the main character in The Moon and Sixpence: “I do not speak of that greatness which is achieved by the fortunate politician or the successful soldier; that is a quality which belongs to the place he occupies rather than to the man; and a change of circumstances reduces it to very discreet proportions.” The glow of a position or status is the source of human vanity.
Becoming a flesh-and-blood "human" comes at a price. The little girl’s mother plans an elaborate life plan for her child’s future. When the interview doesn’t go well, she buys a house in a good school district. At first, the little girl cooperates well, understanding that it’s all part of adapting to a commercial society, which is somewhat understandable. Who doesn’t want to get promoted, become a CEO, marry a rich and beautiful spouse, and reach the peak of life? But the little girl is still a child, her curiosity hasn’t died yet, and she’s easily lured by the old neighbor. She stops following the life plan, which eventually causes a conflict with her mother. But in the end, it all resolves in a family reunion, with no real explanation.
The Little Prince movie has many flaws, but it is an aesthetically significant film. There are many films that offer visual pleasure, but very few offer true aesthetic enjoyment, which is why I recommend it. Those who like it will like it, and those who don’t, no amount of talking will change that. From a young age, we must expose ourselves to great things—not necessarily by traveling, but by engaging with good literary and artistic works, to understand what’s good, so that when we grow up, we won’t forget so easily. Only then can we retain the energy to preserve the purity within us. A fairy tale for adults doesn’t exist—if you’ve truly become an adult, you won’t understand it. If you understand it, there’s still a child living inside you. It’s not worth praising ignorance of the world. After experiencing the various faces of life and the coldness and warmth of the world, if you can still smile with warmth and purity, then that’s what matters.
Then it hit me suddenly: He was drawn to this poster, came with me to watch the movie, and that’s enough.
Today, as I got off the bus, I saw an elderly couple. The old man got off first and stood at the door, gently helping his wife down.
By the way, look at Douban, such a literary site, where the buttons for responding to reviews are simply “Useful” or “Not Useful.” So simple and crude—please click “Not Useful.” I’ve done it. And after watching the movie, I even made a Life Plan in an Excel spreadsheet. It’s very useful.
Why do we hold back tears when reading *The Little Prince*?
Why do we cry when we watch The Little Prince ? Because bonds always come with the price of tears.
I first read The Little Prince in elementary school; the second time was in middle school. I still remember that the friend who lent me the book asked me to draw a classic illustration of the little prince and the pilot together. In high school, I came across the English version, and listened to the VOA recording repeatedly. It was also around that time that my desk mate said, "I really love the relationship between the little prince and the fox," and that’s when I realized that The Little Prince was not just about a journey—it was rich with many other meanings. And then, it entered my memory...
Hand-drawn illustration from middle school
The movie The Little Prince repeatedly uses the original text, highly restoring the picture book novel we once read. Its purpose is to awaken the deep memories inside you, reminding us of a truth: the things we think we’ve forgotten are actually still there, waiting to be awakened... [For those who shout that the movie didn’t stay true to the original, I’d just say: With your deep knowledge of The Little Prince , don’t you only need a single scene to wake up all your memories of it? Actually, the little prince in your heart is always there—you just need to close your eyes, and you’ll see him...]
The clearest memory for me is the scene with the little prince and the fox—short, yet more profound than the one with the rose. Meeting someone who makes you so happy, where you are so perfectly in sync, but your heart still yearns for someone else—selfish and special. So, in the end, you choose to return to that dream... The memory is always bittersweet, and that is what makes it beautiful. The little prince and the fox were destined to only be beautiful friends in the journey of growing up... Perhaps the director of the film also loves this scene, as not only did they keep a lot of the original dialogue, but they also showcased this part in the first trailer. [I took a screenshot of this scene from the trailer before the Cannes premiere, and then I cried. I waited silently for the movie’s domestic release, and then cried again... Some bonds are faint, unhurried, and calmly waiting, because they are bound to be fulfilled.]
==== Please allow me to quote the original text a lot, as I really love this part. [I even remember the voice of the VOA dialogue, it was as magnetic as the fox's voice in the movie! For those familiar with the storyline, feel free to skip ahead!] ====
Original Text
“Who are you?” asked the little prince. “You are very pretty to look at.” "I am a fox," said the fox. “Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince. “I am so unhappy…” “I cannot play with you,” said the fox. “I am not tamed.” “I am looking for men,” said the little prince. “What does ‘tame’ mean?” “It is something that has been forgotten,” said the fox. “It means ‘to establish ties.’” “Establish ties?” "To establish ties?" “Yes,” said the fox. “To me, you are just a little boy, like all the other little boys. I do not need you. And you, on your part, do not need me. To you, I am just a fox, like all the other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be the only one in the world. To you, I will be the only one in the world…” “I think I understand,” said the little prince. “There is a flower... I think she has tamed me…” “My life is very monotonous,” said the fox. “I hunt chickens, and men hunt me. All the chickens are the same, and all men are the same. That is why I am a little bored. But if you tame me, life will be different. I will recognize a footstep that is different from all the others. Other footsteps will make me hurry back underground, but yours will be music that will bring me out of my burrow. Look, do you see the grain fields over there? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields do not interest me. And that’s sad. But you have golden hair. So once you tame me, the wheat will be golden and remind me of you. And I will love to listen to the wind in the wheat…” The fox was silent, gazing at the little prince for a long time. “Please—tame me,” said the fox. “Only the things that are tamed can be understood,” said the fox. “Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy ready-made things at stores. But there is no shop where one can buy friends, so men have no friends. If you want a friend, tame me…” “What must I do, to tame you?” asked the little prince. “You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First, you will sit a little distance away from me—like that—in the grass. I will look at you from the corner of my eye, and you won’t say anything. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But every day, you will sit a little closer to me…” The next day, the little prince came back. “It would have been better if you had come at the same time every day,” said the fox. “For example, if you come at four o’clock in the afternoon, I will start feeling happy from three o’clock. The closer it gets to four, the happier I will be. When four o’clock comes, I will be so impatient. I will show you how happy I am. But if you come at any time, I will never know when to prepare my heart to greet you…” Eventually, the little prince tamed the fox, but still had to leave him. “Then it did no good, did it?” said the little prince. “No,” said the fox. “It did me good because of the color of the wheat fields.” “Go and look at the roses again. You will understand that yours is the only one in the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will give you a secret.” “You are beautiful, but you are empty,” said the little prince to the roses. “No one would die for you. My rose, though, seems just like you, but she is much more important than all of you because I watered her. I put her under a glass dome. I sheltered her behind a screen. I killed the caterpillars for her (except the two or three that we left to become butterflies). I listened to her grumble and boast, and sometimes, I listened to her silence. She is my rose.” “Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now, here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” “Because you spent time on your rose, she became so important.” “It is the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important.” “Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible for what you tame. You are responsible for your rose…”
===
This segment contains many classic pieces—about love, about uniqueness, about meaning, about happiness, about time, and about responsibility... [Unfortunately, the segment about the wheat’s color wasn’t mentioned in the movie, but that part from the original text really makes me feel for the fox...]
Why does so many people remember the fox character so well? Because he understands how to love, and how to let go of the one he loves. He wishes the little prince would stay with him, enjoying their time together, but he knows that his more important role in the little prince’s growth is to teach him what true love is.
This also touches on a very important point in the entire book: To establish ties (another translation: bonds), one must risk shedding tears. 【This line from the movie was translated differently, but based on the original text, it essentially conveys the same meaning...】
This is the main theme of the movie!!! The little girl and the old man establish a connection, so she is responsible for maintaining this bond and not abandoning it under the pressure of her mother’s growth plans. The screenwriters also seem to really love the fox, so in this storyline, the old man represents the little prince, and the little girl represents the fox. In their conversations, the little girl also emphasizes that because the old man tamed her, he is responsible for her. This reveals why the old man cannot leave... This whimsical little fox finally tells the little prince his true feelings! 【Of course, one can interpret this story as the old man teaching the little girl to recognize herself as the fox, or the old man and the little girl being a reflection of the little prince and the rose... Everyone has their own interpretation, but making the fox’s wish come true is the ideal for all of us who love the fox. I prefer to believe in this version, quietly moved.】
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Next, let’s discuss another major theme: Growth Though I feel that with the previous one, this theme becomes less important...
This is the growth storyline that many people notice, but most only see the fear of growing up, missing other meanings. Actually, there are many psychoanalytic symbols within it.
Let’s return to the story of the pilot and the little prince, using my favorite method of psychoanalysis: the first layer of dream interpretation...