After the first Belle and Sébastien trilogy, make way for the New Generation! Pierre Coré’s film is to be seen in theaters from this Wednesday, October 19. The opportunity to make a family cinema.
RECOMMENDED FROM 10 YEARS OLD
• Once upon a time : 10-year-old Sébastien reluctantly spends his holidays in the mountains with his grandmother and aunt. He has to lend a hand at the sheepfold, nothing very exciting for a city boy like him… But that’s without counting on his encounter with Belle, a huge dog abused by her master. Ready to do anything to avoid injustice and protect his new friend, Sébastien is going to experience the craziest summer of his life.
• What they will love: In 2013, Nicolas Vanier adapted the cult 1960s series on the big screen, Belle and Sebastian. A great success which gave birth to a trilogy closed in 2018 by Clovis Cornillac with Belle and Sebastian 3: The Final Chapter. With more than 6.5 million spectators in France, this trilogy obviously made the producers want to continue the adventure.
Sébastien and his mountain dog from the Pyrenees are therefore returning to the cinema for a more modern reboot.
In the movie of Pierre Core (Sahara, The Daisy Adventure), Robinson Mensah-Rouanet embodies the young boy while Michele Laroque interprets his grandmother, Caroline Anglade is his mother, Alice David his aunt and Syrus Shahidi is Gas, the owner of Belle.
Jerome Prebois
Robinson Mensah-Rouanet
Belle and Sébastien: New generation transposes the plot to current times and reinvents the characters. Sébastien, a young city dweller who spends a lot of time on his cell phone, is reluctantly sent to his grandmother’s and has to get used to life in the mountains and animals.
Children can more easily project themselves into this great adventure rich in action and twists.
Ecological aim
The superb landscapes of the Pyrenees filmed by Pierre Coré make you travel and make you want wide open spaces and fresh air. The director and the screenwriter Alexander Chest wrote the screenplay thinking about what the mountains represent today.
The question of ecology is omnipresent in the film with in particular the machine invented by Gas to have snow all year round and draw on water reserves.
Pierre Coré specifies moreover in the press kit of the film: “From this backbone, taking a herd from point A to point B, one could take an interest in ecology, the arrival of city dwellers in these protected regions, the problem of water shortage and add a story of transmission, where an older person transmits his knowledge to a child and where the child transmits his new vision of the world to the elder.”
Thibault Grabherr
Syrus Shahidi and Robinson Mensah-Rouanet
• What may worry them:
- Sébastien is sent to his grandmother’s because his mother cannot take care of him during the holidays. His father can’t get him back and his grandmother doesn’t want to take him in at the start because she’s leaving for transhumance. The boy is rejected by all.
- Like the previous films, it is about animal abuse. Belle is hit by Gas, her master, which pushes Sébastien to free her. If the boy is afraid of the huge animal at first, he will quickly become attached to her and do everything to protect her.
- Syrus Shahidi, who plays Gas, decides to take revenge for Belle’s departure and hunts her down to kill her. Sébastien then takes big risks to save his friend. Some scenes may impress the youngest.
- During a night scene, wolves attack the flock of sheep belonging to Corinne, Sébastien’s grandmother. To protect her friend, Belle fights with the pack.
Louann Core
Robinson Mensah-Rouanet and Michèle Laroque
• What they will keep inside : In addition to the ecological message and the defense of animals, Belle and Sebastian: New Generation presents a stubborn young hero who does as he pleases but who is ready to do anything to defend his values. Whether it’s defending the weak (the racketeering scene at the start of the film) or protecting Belle.
The director also points out:Sébastien is a real hero: he has a sense of sacrifice, he can’t stand injustice and he’s ready to put himself in danger to save others, which makes him dangerous and unpredictable. He’s also an angry kid, and although he’s only 10 in the movie, he’s almost a preteen.“
The feature film will make the youngest want to leave the screens for a while to enjoy the nature that surrounds them.