Inseparable (The InseparablesBelgium, France, Spain/2023). Address: Jeremiah Degruson. Scenario: Joël Cohen, Alec Sokolow, Bob Barlen, Cal Brunker, Matthieu Zeller, Jérémie Degruson. Animation: Valentin Legrand, Dagmara Ziemianska. Edition: Jeremiah Degruson. Duration: 83 minutes. Qualification: suitable for all audiences. Our opinion: regular.
The hook of this co-production between Belgium, France and Spain is the identity of the scriptwriters: it is said in their promotional campaign that they are the same as toy story (at least two of them, Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow), but the truth is that this duo is actually the same one who, after that experience with the Pixar saga that began in 1995, participated in the discreet Garfield: The Movie (2004) and not much more…
Joss Whedon and Andrew Stanton, on the other hand, have gone in other directions. After that big Pixar bomb (which grossed nearly $400 million worldwide), the former worked on the scripts for another successful Marvel saga, The Avengersand Stanton has been involved in some very good animated films like Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo And WALL-E.
With four other screenwriters as support (six in total), Cohen and Sokolow came up with Inseparable a plot that has a similar starting point to that of toy story -a handful of toys that come to life in unexpected ways-, although this time they are – a slight and not very substantial difference – puppets from a puppet theater.
Beyond this specific fact, there are no other analogies between this film and the unforgettable masterpiece directed by John Lasseter. Inseparable There are fewer surprises and less fun than toy storyIt is notorious. Nor does it present an animated work with novelties that could seduce connoisseurs of the genre. And its scenario is much weaker and unimaginative.
The story takes place in New York’s famous Central Park, controlled in this fantasy by the puppets of a children’s theater created by an old man already retired. There is a bald clown who suffers from being typecast as the madman of the series, a provocative rapper stuffed dog (called DJ Doggy Dog) and a Don Quixote who must find stolen puppets to offer them on eBay.
They are the strongest characters in a film in which the reveries of the puppets inspired by Cervantes’ classic take centre stage and appear from innocent ducklings to fearsome dragons, passing of course through the famous windmills of the polyphonic novel by the 16th century author, an undeniable milestone in Spanish literature.
The not at all veiled allusions and winks (whether to the tragedy of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi or the feverish imagery of Tolkien) add density to a big-budget film ($25 million) mixing 2D and 3D animation and recommended for children over 5. But parents also have more to entertain them: allegories to the great tradition of musicals and hip hop culture, and even a nice version by the Belgian group Puggy of a superb song by the Pixies (“Where Is My Mind?”) that many knew thanks to another soundtrack, that of fight club.
