Returning to the cut-paper shadow-play style of 2000's Princes and Princesses while retaining the digital animation techniques that he employed in 2006's Azur & Asmar, French director Michel Ocelot proves that the format doesn't make the filmmaker — even with a move to stereoscopic 3D (the MFA is presenting the feature in 2D), the 69-year-old animator still conjures his usual brand of timeless, magical fairy tales. In an abandoned cinema, an old technician assists a young couple in acting out stories spanning cultures and centuries: from medieval Europe, across the African plains, to Tibet, through an Aztec kingdom, and even a Caribbean-flavored Land of the Dead. The kaleidoscopic backgrounds offer a colorful counterpoint to the simple silhouettes that form the people, animals, and mythical beasts populating the six fables, each of which end with a ironic twist.
