Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Professor Popinjay

Also known as Jack et la Méchanique du Cœur (Zhak eh la mekaneek doo sewer) in its original French, this is an animated rock opera written and performed by Matthias Malzieu and his band Dionysos.

There is definitely a cognitive story here but there are also elements of one of those movies bands put out that incorporates music videos throughout that show up often without rhyme or reason. (I’m looking at you Led Zeplin’s The Song Remains the Same) but this, believe it or not, is not a complaint in this case.

I’ve seen a lot of band movies. I mean actual somewhat story-driven movies that bands have produced and all the band’s fans go and see it because they love that band and then claim it was great and if you hated it you weren’t a true fan. It seemed like the fans’ elitism was carte blanche permitting the band to produce a crappy film for a quick buck.. 

The Beatles made a bunch of these. The Who made Tommy. Abba did Mamma Mia! Even the Newsboys had a movie. It sucked! Some have more followable story lines than others. One thing they all have in common though is the pertaining band’s music. Again some of these films incorporate the music fluidly at times when it makes sense for the story. Sometimes the songs are interjected at weird times and have nothing to do with the story. You might call these big-lipped alligator moments.

Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart has a few of these moments where the pretext for entering into the song is flimsy at best and utterly uncalled for at worst BUT!!!!!!! I say again BUT!!!!!!

But I found myself realizing, while the story is compelling even if a bit all over the place, this is kind of a band movie and therefore non-sequitur songs are sometimes being thrown at me with little rhyme or reason. And I’m okay with that because the animation is amazing and the songs are fantastic. The film is an interesting vehicle for the songs.

The quality of the animation and story and music matches if not rivals something akin to Nightmare Before Christmas but I would not recommend this for kids. It gets dark, perhaps a bit scary, and even overtly sensual if not subtly sexual.

I strongly recommend seeing this in whatever your first language is so you can understand all that is going on and then watch it again in its original French so as to appreciate the acting and emotion behind the oration and singing.

While both the English and the original French version have their merits, I feel there is a bit lost in translation if you only watch one or the other.

JatCCH lost out to other films in a lot of award categories and several critics nitpicked this or that. I don’t get it. If you’re into animation, rock operas, or French, this is a must see. And maybe buy the soundtrack… in French… and English.