Sarasota Film Festival: Classroom Critic

The mission of Sarasota Film Festival’s education department is to inspire, educate and entertain students by promoting creativity, collaboration and community involvement.

Classroom Critic is a program for middle school students in which they learn to appreciate the art of film and analyze it critically. As part of the program, students screen youthFEST shorts and are taught how to write a film review based on SFF curriculum. Here we feature three of the students’ reviews.

‘Little Cousteau’

Salina Yathiraj
Seventh-grader, St. Stephens Episcopal School

“Little Cousteau,” directed by Jakub Kouril, is an adorable animated short film. This film moralizes the importance of chasing your dreams and friendship as it follows a determined little boy trying to find his lifelong admiration, Jacques Cousteau and his octopus friend with the help of Jacques’ humorous cat to lead the way.

In the beginning of the film, there is a short sequence about Jacques, and he removes a hook from one of the octopus’s tentacles. A boy wants to follow in the footsteps of Jacques. He wants to see the movie of underwater exploration starring Jacques. When the cat finally leads the boy to the Jacques’ old apartment, the boy almost drops the statue of Jacques, but the hidden octopus reveals himself. As Jacques showed kindness to the octopus, the octopus repays the kindness when helping the little boy strive for his dreams.

The target audience is to younger children. The animation was unique because the colors kind of look a lot like crayon pictures and paints. The film highlights that kindness never goes unnoticed.

Even though the octopus didn’t directly repay the kindness he owed to Jacques, the scene when the octopus gave the pipe to the boy and fixed his hat to resemble Jacques really showed the octopus’s indebtedness to Jacques.

The music in this film played a major role in enhancing and diminishing the tension and mood of the film. During the climax the music stopped to show tension. The music resumed to show the resolution.

Overall this film deserves a 4.5. It was unique and intriguing. Jakub’s vision has turned out to be a success.

Gillian McKee
Seventh-grader, St. Stephens Episcopal School

Jakub Kouril’s “The Little Cousteau” is an entertaining short film. Directed by Kouril, this is a cute spin-off of the popular myth Androcles and the lion. This clever and heartwarming short film creatively uses music to develop characters and portray moods throughout the film.

“The Little Cousteau” is about an adventurous little boy who is obsessed with the sea. He is on a mission to meet his idol, Jacques Cousteau. He is only fantasizing until a cat comes up to his window, leading him into an adventure.

The film does a fantastic job of developing characters and portraying emotions. The different personalities of the characters move the film along and bring interest into the storyline. The little boy, who later becomes Little Cousteau, has an adventurous, energetic and determined attitude. This is shown by the music getting lighter and happier yet intense in the background whenever the little boy is out searching for Jacques Cousteau. On the other hand, the cat, who we assume belongs to Jacques Cousteau, seems playful and intriguing. During the moments that the boy is following the cat, the music either stops or almost sounds dubious.

The silence brings a dramatic effect to this film. It enhances the serious moments in the film, like when Jacques Cousteau pulls out a fishing hook from an octopus’s tentacle. There was a moment of silence that made us feel sorry for the octopus and created a heartwarming moment.
“The Little Cousteau” is a clever and entertaining short animated film. It is intriguing from start to finish.

With its creative way of developing characters and portraying moods with different types of music, this film is great for all ages and deserves four out of five stars.

Olivia Schwartz
Seventh-grader, St. Stephens Episcopal School

A little boy, who’s stuck in the snowy city, dreaming about a trip to the seaside, wishing that he could embark on a fabulous adventure with his idol, Jacques Cousteau: This is the story of “Little Cousteau,” an original film directed by Jakub Kouril. The little boy in “Little Cousteau” is a heartwarming character who is full of imagination. The director helps to display this story by utilizing song and using unique animation techniques.

This unique short creatively plays off of stories such as Androcles and the lion. Both stories embrace the importance of friendship and returning kindness with kindness. This message is of value in children’s lives, and this film makes it clear through the supporting music and characters’ emotions.

This short is a computer-animated film with a simple style. The characters’ believable emotions help portray both the sadness and excitement the little boy is feeling. The animation may lack detail, but it is unique. The animation uses bright pastels in happy scenes and tones of grays and blues to express the little boy’s sadness, after finding out Cousteau is dead.

The music choice in “Little Cousteau” enhances the film as a whole. It helps to move the story along, and the use of silence complements well. When the boy is happy, upbeat music plays, but when he is in a moment of sadness, silence fills the screen and his emotions leak through.

“Little Cousteau” is a remarkable short that can hold a young audience until the end. It is well executed, from animation to music. Its unique storyline is easy to follow and explains important life messages and values. “Little Cousteau” definitely deserves every one of its four stars.