"Omae Umasou da na" has on my hard drive for at least 3 years, having seen Americans rave about it on twitter. I didn't really know what to expect, but given the background of the Ajia-Do studio and director Masaya Fujimori, I recognized quality Japanese children's productions such as the in-tuable Doraemon and Crayon-Shin Chan, or more personally Kaiketsu Zorori, one of my biggest madeleine de proust, Well, not only was I right, it's an excellent children's film in every respect, and even a small masterpiece of Japanese animation whose total absence from Western distribution is a crime. Well, I'm exaggerating a little, given that the Americans had the luxury of a big bluray containing the film, the anime series released earlier and one of the two Korean films, but in Europe we have nothing, and even in legal distribution we have nothing, what a pity.

"Omae Umasou da na" adapts the children's book of the same name written by Tatsuya Miyanishi, telling the story of a Tyrannosaurus named Heart who lives in solitude thanks to his physical strength, which enables him to use kicks and wrestling holds, One day, he's about to devour a baby Ankylosaurus, who unluckily (and luckily for the baby) believes that "Umasou/Délicieux" is his name, and takes Heart directly for his mother. The rest of the film sees the big one gradually grow fond of the little one in a savage, merciless world.

That's the basic premise, something simple, cute and funny, except that it's really only the second act, The first act sees Heart's egg find its way into a community of Maiasauria (i.e. herbivores) and grow up alongside his brother Light as a herbivorous Tyrannosaurus, until the time comes for him to leave the forest where the community lives and realize the immensity of the world he's living in. the immensity of the world in which he lives, his brutality and, above all, the fact that if he's lived this long as a "grass-eating Tyrannosaurus", his much meaner relatives will quickly bring him back to reality, even if it means hurting his brother, This intro launches the whole theme of the film: the impossibility of denying one's identity even with an opposite upbringing, belonging to a group of which one is biologically not a part, surpassing oneself to overcome one's weaknesses in a hostile world, the relationship between a son and his parents whether adoptive or biological, strong and rich themes treated with maturity, the film is funny, the relationship that develops between Heart and Umasou is an amusing premise and offers scenes that are first comic and then touching, but what I appreciate is the film's seriousness: when Heart is forced to eat part of one of his fellow Tyrannosaurus, who discovers that he loves meat, and attacks his brother, it's shown with gravity, and you're afraid at first that he'll really eat him; when Baku (whose paternity with Heart is hinted at in the film) appears and is feared by all, whether carnivore or herbivore; he's bigger than any of the dinosaurs in the film, and is always accompanied by menacing music, so when Heart confronts him at the end of the film, you have good reason to be afraid for him, Although the film is adapted from a work for the very young, and is aimed at the very young, it speaks to them and shows them events as if they were future adults. The slapstick and laughter are separated from moments of gravity and tension, and when it's as well done as in this film, I can only applaud.

Masaya Fujimori has a substantial CV, having worked as a key animator or animation director on the aforementioned franchises, so his mastery of animation is evident in his direction. He opts for a different chara design from the books, but just as simple and cute; the characters have no detail, are all round and simple, with bright colors that make them expressive and interesting to see animated, and in the case of the babies, even more so: take the whole frame in front of a tiny dinosaur (and if we can do the same thing but with a bigger dino and Heart that becomes tiny, let's do it) play with perspective by imitating a "Fisheye", counter-plunge from the legs gives a constant sense of how fragile Umasou is in this world, and he also plays with colors to propose a raw change of tone, such as the sky turning blood-red for a single scene when Heart menacingly hunts Triceratops (I also appreciate that Heart is never shown as a villain or a monster once he's become a carnivore, it's his dinosaur nature, it's neither good nor bad, it's nature), while wondering at what point Umasou will realize that he's not his father, and very far from the innocent image he has of him, or in the magnificent (and perhaps my favorite) sequence with Pero Pero the Elasmosaurus, where the colors used and even the scenery, coupled with the wonderful piano and violin music, make for a dreamlike, sparkling sequence outside the film. Scenistically, Pero Pero doesn't serve much purpose, but he's there for the pleasure of a magnificent sequence, and there's something beautiful about it.

I mentioned it in the summary, but Heart fights in an unconventional way. If you've already read Gon (and if you haven't, do so), we're into this kind of delirium, and when he's defending Umasou or hunting, the film deploys action scenes that evoke a certain kind of martial arts cinema I'm fond of, The final fight reminds me of the first confrontation between Baki and Yujiro in the childhood saga, when he gives his all but his opponent barely moves, and it's graphically violent. You'd think with the cute chara design, but there's blood, severed tails, more or less serious wounds, characters can fall into comas and have physical repercussions, and it's a very good touch where others would have fallen for lack of guts into slapstick or total lack of physical injury.

I'd only seen Fujimori's first film, Fairy Tail, and as entertaining as it was, it has to be admitted that the source material doesn't fully show Fujimori's worth, Quite the opposite here, with a base aimed at a younger audience (and which doesn't have Fairy Tail's shortcomings in terms of repetitive storytelling or characters who will always win even when faced with stronger opponents thanks to their friends) it delivers a film that's more mature and therefore more striking than the big shonen where there's fighting all the time.

"Omae Umasou da na" is a little-known gems, Masaya Fujimori film is mature beautiful, thematically varied, violent when it needs to be, funny when it needs to be, dreamlike for the pleasure of a beautiful sequence, a film that rewards me as a fan of Japanese animation and makes me say with a great deal of malice that if you think animation is for children and that it's of no interest because of what you see with your child or what you saw as a child, then maybe you and your offspring have seen nothing but crap ?