# Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=29073[/img] 
*Title: Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart* 

*Movie:* :4stars:
*Video:* :4.5stars:
*Audio:* :4.5stars: 
*Extras:* :2stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*83




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=29081[/img]*Summary*
It’s taken several years for me to acclimate to watching foreign films. I could never quite adjust to the seeming off-timing of words to lip movements. It’s not just animated foreign films that have this problem; plenty of live-action films have it, too. My first foray into the genre was with a friend back in high school; alas, I don’t remember which film. Regardless, when I presented my objections, the friend watching the movie with me declared “That’s just how it is,” and so I decided I hated them all and would stick to American movies.

Then, during college, I got into Anime and the game changed. I discovered there were two different camps when it came to watching Anime: the Subs camp and the Dubs camp. Subbers (I call them) are folks who watch only the original foreign language track with English subtitles at the bottom (ergo, “subs”). They say that the translation is more accurate, and that the story is preserved. Dubbers, however, watch the same movie or show with the English dubbing track (ergo, “dubs”), meaning someone in America recorded an English version of the dialogue and then overlaid that atop the video. Proponents of this camp say that paying attention to the action AND subtitles is too much, that the story is just as good as the original, and that a lot of times, they feel the American voice actor is more fitting for the character than the original language actor.

Upon discovering this difference, I immediately gave foreign films another go, this time subscribing to the Subs camp methodology. My goodness, did it make a difference for me. I’ll admit, with some surrealist films, keeping track of the visual symbolism and metaphors AND the words at the bottom can be challenging, but in all others, I didn’t feel like the dialogue is rushed or ill-timed. I didn’t feel like I lose a piece of the story because the exact translation into English wasn’t enough syllables, or was too many syllables, and therefore the writer changed them so the voice-to-lip synchronization wasn’t so “off.” And the more I watch films from a particular country, the more I learn bits of the language.

When I first started watching Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, I could tell right off, from the first few seconds of the film, that this was not an originally English movie. It showed the classic miss-timing of voice and animation, and it rushed through most lines as though the actors couldn’t quite catch up. The songs were the most telling, since in the original language most stuff would rhyme, but in the English translation it doesn’t. I looked for the original French track, but the Setup menu only had English audio and English subtitles. I was severely disappointed that this would be a strictly American language release. It was originally a French book, adapted into a French animated feature with French voice actors and French songs, then dubbed in English and released to us. That doesn’t bother me, so long as the original language is present; since it wasn’t, I felt like the release was incomplete. I had the same experience with Kiki’s Delivery Service when it first got released on DVD: no Japanese track. I had to suffer through the movie listening to Kirsten Dunst. Remembering that, I got to the end of Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart all riled up and ready to give a piece of my mind on the subject… and then I realized I was watching the DVD, not the Blu Ray! Sufficiently mortified, I popped in the CORRECT disc and happily discovered the French track with English subtitles.

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=29089[/img]
Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is exquisitely animated, beautifully surreal, and probably chalk full of symbolism I didn’t pick up because I didn’t grow up in the French culture (I have that sense a lot while watching Anime, too). The story starts in Edinburgh, England, during the coldest day of the year, as a young mother trudges through the snow to reach a sequestered house on a cliff, wherein a “witch” resides. She’s definitely different than the rest of Edinburgh: rather scientific, with a touch of the supernatural, and quite adept at mechanical reparations. She’s like a magical Steampunk mid-wife healer, really. This “witch,” Madeleine (Marie Vincent and Emily Loizeau, French version; Barbara Scaff, English version), delivers a baby boy whose heart is frozen solid. She quickly removes the frozen heart and inserts a cuckoo-clock in its place, saving the infant’s life. “However,” Madeleine, tells the new mother, “there are three rules he must never break: he must never touch the hands of the clock; he must master his anger; he must never, ever fall in love.” Whether these rules seem impossible to enforce, or the thought of having a son with a mechanical heart proves too much, the new mother leaves in the middle of the night, saying that the mid-wife would make a better mother than she. All seems well for ten years, until Madeleine takes Jack (Mathias Malzieu, French version; Orlando Seale, English version) out to explore the town, and he meets Miss Acacia (Olivia Ruiz, French version; Samantha Barks, English version), a young street performer with a bewitching voice but horrible vision. Jack nearly dies after this encounter, and Madeleine once again warns him of the three rules he must always observe. “Your heart cannot handle the burden of such emotions,” she lectures him. Undeterred, Jack discovers that Miss Acacia went to school in town, and follows in her footsteps, only to come face-to-face with another Acacia admirer – Joe (Grand Corps Malade, French version; Harry Sadeghi, English version), the school bully. Jack endures four years of torture from Joe, until he finds that Miss Acacia is actually living in a country called Andalusia, somewhere near Spain. After an accident that renders Joe blind in one eye, Jack flees Edinburgh and happens to meet a French would-be film-maker named Méliès (Jean Rochefort, French version; Stephane Cornicard, English version), also adept at repairing clocks. The two head to Andalusia together to find Acacia and to win her heart for Jack.

To quote the text on the back of the Blu-ray case, “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a fantastical, wildly inventive tale of love and heartbreak – by turns poignant and funny – in which Jack finally learns the great joys, and ultimately the greater costs, of owning a fully formed heart.” This is absolutely true, but also misleading. The story is primarily one of what Jack suffers to find and be with his love, Miss Acacia, but it also deals with themes like courage, sacrifice, abuse, standing up for oneself, and what people endure when they’re perceived as different. I also found it interesting that the author includes a brief but telling scene from Joe’s point of view. If you pause for a moment and think about it, everyone views themselves as the protagonists of their life story. In Joe’s case, he’s the king of the schoolyard, ensuring order and security by exercising fear-motivated control, protecting his Acacia from a strange, unpredictable, and violent mechanical-operated boy. Of course, conversely, Jack sees Joe’s fate as one he deserves for tormenting those weaker than himself. The film is visually stimulating, from the unique animation style to the surrealistically influence narrative, moving from reality to dream with seamless transition. Songs are an especially good example of how Jack’s inner life switches between the two with startling continuity. Moons swallow flying trains, a soul greets someone with a kiss, people float on air when speaking of love; there’s even a bizarre and seemingly pointless encounter with Jack the Ripper. (Given Jack’s active imagination, Jack the Ripper could be Jack’s perception of the world outside his home, or it could be his perception of an alternate self, given what happened to make him leave Edinburgh.) Perhaps one of the most emotional scenes for me in this movie is at the end, when death is portrayed as simply the freedom from time – all the world stops, and the dead can climb snowflakes to heaven.









*Rating:* 

Rated PG for scary images, suggestive material, some language and smoking 




*Video* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=29097[/img]Like many modern CGI films, “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart” looks simply spectacular on home video. The DVD included in the combo pack looks excellent, but my jaw really hit the floor when I popped in that Blu-ray disc. Detail literally pops off the screen at every turn, with tons of bright colors abounding as far as the eye can see. Interestingly enough the colors tend to lean a bit more towards burnt colors with the reds and the gold’s having a nice tempered hue to them instead of your usual saturated CGI colors. The clarity was spot on as one can see every little bit of animated detail, down to the minutest flaw or most fantastical success in the animation department. Blacks are deep and inky, never a cause for alarm and show plenty of shadow detail. I did notice a few scenes that looked a little soft, specifically in the “Romeo and Juliet” movie scene, but other than that I didn’t notice any flaws or compression issues to bring to light. 










*Audio* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=29105[/img]The film also has a quad set of audio tracks, giving us a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track for both the French and the English dubs as well as 2.0 stereo tracks for both languages in uncompressed LPCM. Both the English and the French tracks appear to be about identical in terms of the mix, giving a nice vocal soundstage and some really nice use of the surrounds. LFE is strong and powerful, when needed, and can sink into the back when it’s not as necessary with aplomb. I do have to give the win to the French track though, as the English track was almost cloyingly annoying with the dub and the voice actors didn’t seem to mesh with the characters as well as the original French track. It’s not a wild difference really, but as the translations came out better from the French vs. the English I can’t help but not really want to watch the movie in my native tongue. 







*Extras* :2stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=29113[/img]
• Characters
- Jack
- Acacia
- Joe
- Méliès 
- Arthur
- The Aunts
• From Book to Screen











*Overall:* :4stars:

I wasn’t sure what to make of Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart. As end credits rolled, I sat there listening to the music, equally peeved at the disconnect between language adaptation and story as I was contemplative of the themes the author chose to grapple. Of course, once I realized my silly mistake, I quickly remedied my longing to hear the movie in the original French. I feel there is so much more to this story than the English can portray, even if the main idea conveys the same in both. For members of both the Subs camp and the Dubs camp, this film is certainly worth a watch, given the beauty of the world Mathias Malzieu created in the novel and the screenplay. Surrealism and symbolism aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, so if you like it after first view, definitely add it to your collection.



*Additional Information:*

Starring: Mathias Malzieu, Olivia Ruiz, Grand Corp Malade
Directed By: Stéphane Berla, Mathias Malzieu
Written By: Stéphane Berla, Mathias Malzieu
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: ENGLISH, FRENCH: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, French LPCM 2.0
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: PG
Runtime: 89 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 7th 2014



*Buy Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart Blu-ray on Amazon*



*Recommendation: Watch It​*








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## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

Thanks. I didn't hear of this movie earlier. The trailer looks great thou. I will have to check it out. I do agree with you that "foreign" movies take some time to get used to. The english is hit or miss.


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

here's a few fun clips for the movie now that it's out


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## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

Those clips are very good. Thanks for sharing. I am very much interested. I will have to find time to watch this movie. The animation looks great and the story is very good also. Both pluses.


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