| Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart | |
| Screenplay: | Mathias Malzieu |
| Based On: | La Mécanique du cœur (novel) by Mathias Malzieu |
| Music: | Dionysos |
| Editing: | Soline Guyonneau |
| Distributor: | EuropaCorp Distribution |
| Runtime: | 93 minutes |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | English Spanish French |
| Budget: | $22 million[1] |
| Gross: | $3.5 million[2] |
Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a 2013 French animated musical fantasy film based on the novel La Mécanique du cœur written by musician Mathias Malzieu and the concept album by French rock band Dionysos, which he is the frontman for and who also composed the film's music.
The original French version, Jack et la mécanique du cœur, which literally translates as Jack and the Mechanic of the Heart, was released in October 2013, with English, German, Finnish, and Spanish versions being released in 2014.
In Edinburgh, Scotland in 1874, Jack is born on the coldest day on record, causing him to be born with a frozen heart that does not beat. Midwife Madeleine saves his life by replacing his heart with a cuckoo clock. She then tells him of three rules to prevent his untimely death: he must never play with the clock's hands, lose his temper, or fall in love. Jack's mother decides that Madeleine will raise Jack, and Madeleine, who is incapable of bearing children, raises and loves him as her own.
On Jack's tenth birthday, Madeleine repeats the three rules before taking him into town for the first time, where he meets and falls in love with a girl named Miss Acacia. Soon after, he starts school and meets Joe, a bully who is also in love with Miss Acacia and, along with his gang, torments Jack for the next four years. When Joe assaults Jack, the cuckoo of his clock heart gouges out Joe's eye, and Jack runs home believing he has murdered Joe. Madeleine, believing Jack to be a fugitive, helps him escape.
Jack, who wants to see Miss Acacia again, eventually meets up with Georges Méliès, a magician attempting to operate an early film camera. Georges helps repair his heart and agrees to join Jack in the search for Miss Acacia, which leads them to Andalusia, Spain.
After a journey, they arrive at a circus in Andalusia, where Jack finds Miss Acacia; however, Georges advises him not to reveal his identity to her. He befriends her and avoids sharing his feelings with her. She hints that her heart belongs to someone from her past, which turns out to be Jack. Jack eventually finds a way to reveal himself and gives Miss Acacia a key that can be used to wind his heart.
Before Jack and Miss Acacia can run away together, Joe shows up, having been looking for an opportunity to further punish Jack. He explains to Miss Acacia the three rules of Jack's cuckoo clock heart in an attempt to sabotage their love. Miss Acacia, after talking with Joe, decides she does not want to cause Jack's death by allowing him to fall in love. She rejects him and leaves with Joe, and Jack tears at the screws of his heart.
While in the carriage with Miss Acacia and Joe, he tells her that soon after Jack escaped with help from Madeleine, she was sent to prison and died soon afterward, with rumors stating she died of a broken heart. Miss Acacia realizes she holds the key to Jack's survival and returns to search for him, learning that Jack had departed for his home in Edinburgh and learned what happened to Madeleine.
Miss Acacia finds Jack in front of Madeleine's grave and tries to use the key to turn his clock; however, he throws away the key and chooses to die. They kiss, and when Jack breaks the kiss, time has stopped for him. A song plays about climbing to heaven using frozen snowflakes as a ladder as the film ends.
With this first production, Mathias Malzieu brings to the big screen the novel La Mécanique du cœur which he wrote in 2007, a book which also inspired the homonymous album of the group Dionysos of which he is the leader and which was released the same year.[3]
Present on the album, singer -songwriter Olivia Ruiz takes on the character of Miss Acacia. It is the same for Grand Corps Malade and Arthur H, also singer-songwriters, who respectively cover Joe and Arthur as well as for the actor Jean Rochefort who plays the director and illusionist Georges Méliès.[3] For the choice of the latter, Malzieu explains: “There was a certain resemblance between the two: I cannot say if it is the mustache, the inventive side which is both a little depressive but also very playful or even the capacity for wonder still intact regardless of age. [4]
As for the singer-songwriter Alain Bashung present on the album, his death in 2009 must have forced the production to use recordings from the album to have him participate in the film.[3]
The film was directed by Stéphane Berla, the director of the band's previous video clips, and Mathias Malzieu. The film was originally set to be released on 17 October 2012 in France[5] but was delayed until October 2013.[5] It was later revealed that the bankruptcy of French animation studio Duran Duboi caused the delay.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 13 reviews, with an average score of 6.5/10.[6] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7] Sandie Angulo Chen of Common Sense Media gave the film 3 out of 5 stars praising the humor and romance, but criticized the character building between Madeleine and her friends.[8]
The film received recognition in the animation industry: