Loulou, l'incroyable secret

Once upon a time, there was an orphan wolf called Loulou who grew up with his loyal leporid pal Tom in the Land of the Rabbits. One day, the young master Isegrim learns from the clairvoyant crow Cornelia that his mother, presumed dead, is actually alive. Loulou sets off with Tom in the rabbit family’s racing car for Wolfensberg, the town allegedly named after his mother. A white wolf presides over the said town, a pelican wearing a suit arranges entrance into the hotel, and a vixen called Scarlett entertains carnivorous guests who have travelled from all over the world to attend the “Meat-Eaters’ Festival.”
The characters in Solotareff’s fable, in the meantime a classic in French children’s literature, have a multifaceted relationship to their animal nature. Names, accents, behavioural patterns and traditional animal symbolism prompt a host of associations and interpretations. Confronted with this civilised animal world – a contradiction in itself – the two protagonists remind us, among other, that cultivated friendship can also stand above natural animosities.
“Loulou, l’incroyable secret” is the screen adaptation of the picture book of the same name by its author and illustrator Grégoire Solotareff, in collaboration with the screen- writer and comic artist Eric Omond. The French-Belgian coproduction staged Loulou’s journey of initiation as a straightforward 2-D animation. At the beginning of this year, the work was honoured with the César for Best Animation Film. A considerable portion of the film’s success might have something to do with, among other things, the undeniably magical soundtrack by the promising composer Laurent Perez del Mar. (rr)