Kaena - The Prophecy
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cécile De France, François Siener, Jean-Michel Farcy, Michael Lonsdale, Victoria AbrilBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-07
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Kaena - The Prophecy
Movie Review: A rare, challenging work of animation! Obviously not American
Summary: 5 Stars
Scepticism and religion collide head-on in this fantastic, perceptive computer-animated fantasy, a France-Canada co-production.
Originally shown in France in 3-D (and apparently initiated as a video game), the film pulls no punches in advocating science and reason over empty spiritualism in an age of unquestioning belief in things that cannot be proven or seen. It's staggering that such an approach can be taken in an animated feature aimed as much at young kids as it is at adults. One imagines such a film could only be made in a country that knows what sacrifices must be made in order to achieve any kind of true enlightenment. It's doubtful any American animators could have produced a project so willing to confront very importtant issues in a fantasy milieu.
The film is set in an otherworldly forest structure called Axis in which a human tribe virtually lives to harvest the sap of the trees to appease their Gods. Only one, an adventurous 17-year-old girl named Kaena (voiced by Kirsten Dunst/Cecile De France), dares to defy ancestral tradition (which is largely comprised of work and worship) to seek the truth when the gods declare their anger at the decreasing returns of the harvest and start threatening destruction. She knows something's not right, and eventually finds evidence (with the help of some creepy-cute evolved worms) that these Gods are nothing more than a malevolent but superior liquid race called Selenites (who themselves are being used by an even higher power), yet the tribal High Priest, who has unwittingly turned everyone into peons working for this much more sinister force, believes that every ill that befalls the tribe is a punishment from the gods and that only prayer will provided the answers.
There's a crucial scene about 46 minutes into the film where the high priest is seen despairing for answers (which, of course, are not forthcoming, and never have been) and then, with little sense of responsibility, turns around and lies to a questioning villager that God has given him good news: they've passed the final test in a series and are now free to join their maker in a mindless group suicide. Thus, Kaena's struggle to learn the truth - and what lies beyond the clouds that surround Axis - suddenly has a deadline if she's to save her people from literally destroying themselves over their beliefs.
The CG design work in this film is stunning and quite unlike anything undertaken in either the U.S. or Asia to date, although FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN could be considered a close artistic cousin; the visual and aural effect is quite enveloping within the first few minutes. The human characters are slightly exaggerated (along the lines of, say, King Farquahd (?) in Shrek, but far less intentionally comical) and the lead character exudes a vibrant sexuality (check out that chamois bikini get-up on the package) unseen in American animated characters beyond the grotesque amazonian vixens of the HEAVY METAL films. It should come as no surprise that the film lists legendary comic book writer Alexandro Jodorowski as a consultant (if I recall correctly).
The production design, from the lush brown palatte of Axis to the slick, blue-black interiors of Vechanoy, the sentient spaceship that once housed the forerunners of the human tribesmen, is stunningly "realistic" and must have been a pip in 3-D.
Despite the elaborate trappings (and an occasionally tricky plot structure), at its core KAENA: THE PROPHECY is rather daring indictment of organized religion and its continued inability to definitively answer the Really Big Questions, as well as mankind's continued tendency to need answers to such quandaries (hey, it's all in the film, folks!). It's a colourful reminder that we're often better off thinking for ourselves. As such, fundamentalists might want to consider keeping this away from their young ones, who might clamor for it at the local Best Buy, but animation fans and freethinkers will find much to absorb.
Summary of Kaena - The Prophecy
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