"The Breadwinner" Review - A Rescue Mission Beyond Borders

“The Breadwinner” has many great intentions, and is a very well done film, but ultimatly falls a little short of amazing.

First off, the animation is f**kng phenomenal. It’s one of the many reasons why I love Cartoon Saloon. It feels like what would happen if a physical form of Disney animation got shot and killed only to be reincarnated. It feels life-like, beautiful, yet so new to the human sight.

The story is truly unique. Basically it’s about a family who lives in the slums of Afghanistan who try to make all means to survive when their father is taken away. But the main daughter has to cut her hair, very much like Mulan, to become a boy and help care for her sick family while also trying to find a way to rescue her father from prison. The story does so well in establishing this truly horrifying environment where women have to do everything they can to survive. The main villain literally is like Zod from Man of Steel so it adds even more suspense which is really cool. I think I owe that to the voice of this particular villain, and frankly the rest of the entire voice cast, because they really do sell it.

But while “The Breadwinner” shines a light on a wonderful story about family, survival, feminism, and friendship, it’s slowed down by two awful subplots that don’t really add much to the entire movie. One is this so called “war coming”, which is added simply to cause suspense. It does nothing to add a big finish to the film, which causes the ending to fall flat. The bigger problem is this story the main girl tells throughout the entire film. The main character tells this children’s fable to entertain her family, but also to make herself feel calm. The problem is it takes up about half the movie, and it hits the brakes on the overall pacing so many times that it gets very annoying. I feel like that whole children’s story could’ve been trimmed a lot, or cut out completely. It's only an hour and a half long, so maybe it was for timing purposes. I’m not sure. But the whole, “let’s stop this film to keep telling you this children’s story” just didn’t settle with me.

There were so many things I liked about it. But the things that fail really did not please me. So I’m giving it a rare 1.5 Nebs up. Cartoon Saloon is making the right kind of films with “Secret of Kells” and “Song of the Sea”. But I think they are not quite there yet in terms of finding the right formula. It’s only a matter of time. Cartoon Saloon will be the next Studio Ghibli. Mark my words.

1.5 Nebs Up!