My Life as a Zucchini Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

My Life as a Zucchini Blu-ray Movie Review

Veggie Tales.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 20, 2017

"Zucchini" is certainly an odd nickname for a child, and it makes for an odd movie title, too. But Director Claude Barras' stop-motion animated film My Life as a Zucchini is anything but odd. An emotionally challenging and thematically dark story to start but externally colorful and positively hopeful by film's end, its story is one rooted in despair but one that gradually sprouts into something more auspicious. Compact but finely woven and interestingly assembled, the film certainly proves its worth both thematically and technically alike, finding a balance between melancholy and cheerful on both fronts, creating sort of a real-life dichotomy that freely explores life's darkest moments, its most inspiring moments, and plenty of other moments in between.

When you wish upon...

A little boy named Icare, who goes by the nickname "Zucchini" (voiced by Erick Abbate), lives at home alone with his mother, an alcoholic. His father is long gone, and Zucchini only remembers him by way of an image he's drawn on a kite, depicting his father as a superhero. One day, Zucchini collects his mother's empty beer cans from around the house. He stacks them, they fall, make noise, and his mother become infuriated. She threatens to beat him, but when he attempts to defend himself from her advances, she's killed. He's taken into foster care by a kindly man named Raymond (voiced by Nick Offerman). He finds himself boarding with several other children. He's depressed, lonely, frightened. He finds it hard to fit in. He shares a life story not dissimilar from his peers, but he struggles to become conditioned to his new reality. Things change when a new arrival, Camille (voiced by Ness Krell), catches his eye. The two become close friends and choose to share their journey towards whatever life has in store for them.

My Life as a Zucchini is melancholy to begin and, indeed, remains so for much of the picture. The film's colorless title appears over a gray, hopeless sky. Thunder claps in the distance. Zucchini's inebriated mother threatens her son. She dies. He's frightened and taken to a new life. The character's appearance, complete with dark circles around his eyes, and around the other children's eyes, for that matter, seems to reflect tiresome, troubled living. His struggles mount, his despair with his mother seems only replaced by new troubles, not removed from his life. Even as the movie is otherwise very colorful, a dour note hangs above it. But flickers of hope begin to take shape. Characters grow and evolve. The world around them seems a little brighter. The future suddenly holds potential. The film is a master of emotional evolution, reflective of life in its honesty, never masking the darkness but never closing the door on the light. It's very simple on the surface but elegant and thematically complex at the same time.

Even through all of that darkness, the light at the end shines brightest. The movie's ability to ever so slowly draw the character, and the audience, from darkness to light is a major achievement in storytelling, one that's not particularly new but certainly one that the film handles remarkably well. The stop-motion animated approach allows for a level of character nuance that live action, or traditional hand-drawn or contemporary digital animation, might not have achieved. The lack of natural fluidity, odd shapes and colors, and blend of traditional environmental and nontraditional character design gives the movie a personality that, subtly but surely, helps define the movie through its bleak-to-bright arc. Voice work is of a high quality and the movie's success comes from every part. It's a harmonious, complete effort that, even in its condensed runtime, tells a magnificently realized story of life's hardships and the counterbalance of the hope that's there if people allow it to work in their lives.

My Life as a Zucchini Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My Life as a Zucchini was photographed in stop-motion style with a Canon EOS 5D digital camera. Universal's 1080p presentation captures the movie's visual quirks and stylings remarkably well. Textural delights abound. Faces are particularly rigid, and the 1080p resolution allows the viewer to practically touch the lines. Clothing complexity is terrific, as are various object and environmental details. The image is absolutely sharp at all times, along all edges and corners. Colors are beautiful, diverse and punchy, showing plenty of natural punch and brilliance. The Blu-ray reveals the nuance, the subtle transitions, that truly help to distinguish characters, set moods, and propel the movie forward beyond the more basic, larger splashes of green grass or colorful clothes. Black levels are deep and true. No serious source or encode flaws are apparent. This is a terrific presentation from Universal.

My Life as a Zucchini Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My Life as a Zucchini's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack (available in both English and French) is rather straightforward. It does offer its share of discrete and dispersed effects, such as rolling thunder near film's start or the collapsing tower of beer cans, also near film's start, but it's more or less a straightforward dialogue film that depends on music and environmental detail to shape its sonic landscape. Ambient barking, light gusty wind, or chatty children at the home filter through the stage with pleasing accuracy and placement. Music is light, well spaced and nicely detailed throughout the range. Dialogue is clear, efficient, well prioritized, and firmly placed in the front-center channel.

My Life as a Zucchini Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

My Life as a Zucchini contains a featurette, a short film, and some trailers. A DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy are included with purchase.

• The Making of My Life as a Zucchini (1080p, 18:18): A discussion about the original source material, the script, character design, physical character and prop construction, using human actors as a baseline for the movie, digital work, manipulating the characters, and more. In French with English subtitles.
• The Genie in a Tin of Ravioli (1080p, 7:43): A short stop-motion animated film. In French with English subtitles.
• US Trailer (1080p, 1:45).
• Also From GKids (1080p): Trailers for April and the Extraordinary World, Boy and the World, Miss Hokusai, Ocean Waves, Only Yesterday, and Phantom Boy.

My Life as a Zucchini Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My Life as a Zucchini balances a dour start with a hopeful end. The film's middle stretch sees its gradual movement from darkness to light. It's smart, sincere, simple in construction but complex in purpose. Its outward support mechanisms -- voice work, animation style -- are wonderful and deeply complimentary to and understanding of the movie's needs. Universal's Blu-ray offers top-end video and audio. The included supplements are fine. Highly recommended.