Good-looking but predictable and schlocky, Mia and the White Lion is ultimately saved from slaughter by its two plucky heroes.
Mia and the White Lion(Mia et le lion blanc)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France, South Africa, Germany · 2018
Rated PG · 1h 38m
Director Gilles de Maistre
Starring Daniah De Villiers, Mélanie Laurent, Langley Kirkwood, Ryan Mac Lennan
Genre Adventure, Drama, Family
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British ten-year-old Mia moves reluctantly to a South African farm with her family. Her life improves when she makes a strong friendship with a white lion named Charlie. However, when she learns of a dark secret that puts Charlie in danger, she goes on a risky adventure to bring him to safety.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Despite a heartfelt sentiment that one person has the power to uproot societal structure and inspire change, and the filmmakers’ desire to raise awareness about an abhorrent practice, packaging it in a family-friendly narrative proves to be wildly problematic.
Los Angeles Times by Gary Goldstein
There are several uniquely impressive elements to the adventure drama Mia and the White Lion, but they’re undermined by a choppy, at times contrived and implausible script by Prune de Maistre (wife of director Gilles de Maistre) and William Davies.
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
Given its focus, viewers might forgive Mia for its clumsy direction of actors, its contrived plot or its on-the-nose dialogue. But training impressionable kids to identify with a girl who sneaks into lions' cages is a cinematic flaw that could have heartbreaking real-world consequences.
The film brings great heart while underscoring ties between family, friends and, crucially, between humans and the wider environmental world in a way likely to resonate with tweens and teens in North America as it has already successfully done internationally.
The human acting is, for the most part, indifferent, with even the polished Laurent (“Inglorious Basterds,””Beginners,” “Night Train to Lisbon”) underwhelming owing to the lack of big emotional moments in the script.
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