It seemed like an impossible, and almost foolish task — turning Antoine de Saint-Exupéry‘s beloved children’s book into a feature length, animated film. But not only did director Mark Osborne pull it off, the critics loved it too, and “The Little Prince” turned out to be an unexpected charmer, and won France’s César Award for Best Animated Film. The Weinstein Company quickly swooped in for the U.S. rights for the English language version, before tossing it over to Paramount Pictures. And one week before it was set to be released this spring, the studio yanked the movie, and handed the rights over to Netflix. After being tossed around like a hot potato, the streaming service will finally be bringing the movie to stateside viewers.
Featuring the voices of Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Marion Cotillard, Benicio Del Toro, James Franco, Ricky Gervais, Paul Giamatti, and more, mixes CG and stop-motion, expands upon the book, while also remaining true to the source material. Here’s the official synopsis:
A little girl lives in a very grown-up world with her mother, who tries to prepare her for it. Her neighbor, the Aviator, introduces the girl to an extraordinary world where anything is possible, the world of the Little Prince.
“The Little Prince” will start streaming on August 5th, and play theatrically as well. Watch the trailer above.