Kirikou and the Sorceress(Kirikou et la sorcière)

Name: Kirikou and the Sorceress
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy

France, Belgium, Luxembourg · 1998
1h 10m
Director Michel Ocelot
Starring Doudou Gueye Thiaw, Maimouna N'Diaye, Awa Sène Sarr, Robert Liensol
Genre Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy

In an African village, a young child is born. The newborn boy, Kirikou, is the answer to the problems plaguing his village. A sorceress called Karaba has cast a terrible spell: the spring is dried up, and the villagers are being ransomed, but Kirikou is here to save the village.

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The Observer (UK) by

The sweet-natured Kirikou and the Sorceress, is a French animated movie drawing on a West African tale that has an authenticity The Lion King lacks.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Many times more African than "Tarzan" and "The Lion King" combined, Kirikou and the Sorceress is one of the best movies so far in this very young year.

The New York Times by Elvis Mitchell

It's more a piece to admire than to be involved by, yet it's easy to imagine children hypnotized by a hero tinier than they are when "Kirikou" is continually loaded into the VCR.

Chicago Reader by Lisa Alspector

The plots of animated features are often excuses for visual showboating, but here the lilting story line, based on west African folktales, complements the alternately sumptuous and austere images.

Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan

Coupled with the fact that the plant and animal life (hoopoes, zorilles and ground squirrels, among other beasties) really look African, and that the film's original score is by the great contemporary Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour, Kirikou and the Sorceress's surprising honesty about the banality of evil makes the movie -- even with all its magic -- feel truly authentic.

Empire by Patrick Peters

A welcome antidote to anodyne Hollywood cartooning.

San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Stack

Kirikou and the Sorceress is definitely a sunny spot in the mire of frenetic, violent and often dopey cartoon films produced by Hollywood. It's also far more imaginative that most.

The Dissolve by Tasha Robinson

Kirikou is a wonder because it’s such a familiar kind of story, told in such an unusual way.

San Francisco Examiner by Wesley Morris

Set in a vivid two-dimensional African village, the animated fable is jerky, odd but redolent somehow of Saturday morning and the night's sleep before.