A book that many people considered unfilmable has inspired one of the year’s most riveting and rewarding movies. I don’t like using hype words, but I found “The Little Prince” truly magical and completely immersive. Rather than observing the story from a distance we’re made to feel part of its leading character’s remarkable journey. As the movie opens, we meet a little girl who lives with her workaholic Mother. It’s summer and the girl is supposed to be studying, but she soon finds a distraction in the old aviator next door who happens to have an old plane in his backyard. He tells her the story of how he met the Little Prince in the Sahara dessert and of all the strange characters that the Prince knew: the Rose, the Snake, the Fox, the King and the Businessman. Just like the book, the movie is at once a story of friendship, a quest for enlightenment, a meditation on what matters most in life, and more. Antoine De Saint-Exupery’s beloved story and this thoughtful adaptation can be taken as literally or as symbolically as one chooses. In the hands of director Mark Osborne it becomes something rare and precious: a film that makes the impossible seem real. Prepare to be taken on a magic carpet ride.

Rating: 3/4