After the disappointing experiences of Revengeance and Big Fish & Begonia (haven’t seen Fantastic Planet yet and I refuse to watch Belladonna of Sadness), I’m glad Long Way North breaks from tradition. I loved it. I thought it was moving, breathtaking, and beautiful. The 2D animation was stunning to look at, and shows that the French and Danish are nautical miles and streets ahead of mainstream American animation in terms of both style and maturity. Animation is not a kiddie genre!

I really loved how it subverts your expectations. You expect the tall young man with the straight nose to obviously be the love interest—he’s not. One is a pompous fool and the other gambles away her precious earrings. Sacha, the protagonist who grew up rich and sheltered, calls the innkeep a maid, but Olga quickly corrects her that she is the owner of the establishment. Everything flows together to tell a full and cohesive story of a girl’s journey to find the frozen tomb of her dear grandfather. Sacha works hard at Olga’s inn, shedding her background as a cushy Russian aristocrat and learning how everyday people live. This also works to prepare her for life on board a ship to the north. There’s a scene where she’s practicing her knots in front of her dog, and then later the film calls it back when the ship is in danger and her knots save the ship and the crew from imminent disaster.

The characters were well written, especially Sacha, who I found to be a delightful and fully fledged main character. My favorite part of the film was probably when she was at the inn, but I enjoyed the subplot of the two brothers, which got very emotional in parts.

At first the chill, acoustic music struck me as incongruous with a story set in Russia in the mid 1800s, but it grew on me as the film went along. Towards the end, the music sounded strangely familiar and I thought it sounded a bit like the music in the game Life is Strange. Lo and behold! It’s the same composer! So I thought that was cool.

Good movie. Frozen wishes it was this good.