Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest (2006) on Netflix
PG20061h 39mAdventureAnimationFamilyFantasy
Nursed by the same woman, Azur and Asmar grow up as brothers on tales of the Djinn-fairy, imprisoned until a prince frees her. Grown, Azur crosses the sea to seek her.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.3/104,367 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jénane nurses two boys: Azur, the blond, blue-eyed son of a nobleman, and her own son Asmar, who is tan-skinned with dark eyes. She raises them together and tells them the tale of the Djinn-fairy, who waits for a good and heroic prince to set her free. The two grow up as close as brothers, until Azur's father tears the household apart and sends Azur away to be schooled by a tutor. Years afterward, Azur, haunted by the memory of the Djinn-fairy, crosses the sea to Asmar's homeland to look for her.
Cast
- Rayan Mahjoubas Azur enfant (voice)
- Abdelsselem Ben Amaras Asmar enfant (voice)
- Fatma Ben Khellas La Princesse Chamsous Sabah (voice) (as Fatma Ben Khelil)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- American distributors balked at the film's opening breastfeeding scene between the nurse Jenane and the two babies, judging the exposed breasts obscene. The Weinstein Company licensed it in February 2007, but more than a year later no US release had been announced.
- Michel Ocelot deliberately left the film's Arabic dialogue undubbed and unsubtitled, saying the sea journey evokes immigration and that not understanding or being understood is one of an immigrant's problems.
- Offered a full German dub even though much of the dialogue was written in Classical Arabic, Michel Ocelot chose to forgo a major German distributor for a smaller one rather than alter his work.
- Azur & Asmar was Michel Ocelot's first use of 3D computer graphics, but he used the medium atypically, with two-dimensional painted backgrounds and non-photorealistic rendering.
- Ocelot researched a book on Algerian costume and pieces he had seen in the Bardo Museum; the women in the film wear Berber outfits, and the Djinn Fairy's headdress is based on one preserved in the Bardo Museum in Algiers.
- Ocelot has said that Crapoux, a character in the film, represents his own difficulty in integrating when he arrived in France in the 1950s.
