Written and directed by Julien Fournet, Pil’s Adventures is a 3D animated movie that follows the story of a young girl named Pil, an orphan from the streets. After witnessing a plot of treachery, she goes on a journey to save Prince Roland and the Kingdom of Foggyburgh.
As the story begins, the town is preparing for the coronation ceremony of the prince and the movie spends this time establishing the cast of characters. Pil is an energetic street urchin that survives by tricking a local guard into leaving out food to lure a sprite. She is kind but doesn’t have any friends beside a band of ferrets who she shares her food with. As the celebrations around town begin, she befriends a young jester named Jiggler when she laughs at one of his jokes. Crobar, the aforementioned guard, is a bit clumsy but strives to become a knight. As Pil dons another disguise, he is led to believe she is a princess who can make his dream come true.
And thus, our band of ragtag heroes is formed! As all sorts of chaos ensues around them, they find themselves on an impromptu journey to find a sorceress that can save Prince Roland. Can they save Foggyburgh’s throne from being usurped by the evil reagent, Tristain?
There’s some great action in Pil’s Adventures, as Pil is quite the acrobatic kid, climbing, jumping and running about in some nice fluid animation sequences. The characters all have unique face designs and silhouettes, which is always a hallmark of good animation design.
Visually it has a nice use of vibrant colours in this medieval setting. From pretty dresses to bubbling potions, Pil’s Adventures will take you through from the cobblestone town to a beautiful forest, and perhaps even to the location of a secret treasure!
This movie doesn’t take itself too seriously and there’s plenty of cartoony antics for comic relief that will make kids and adults alike giggle. I found Jiggler particularly amusing, as he almost seems to have a split personality when he pulls out his sock puppet! The prince also gets turned into a cat-chicken hybrid which is both hilarious and adorable, as both meows and cluck sounds come out, which also includes a themed insert song for extra fun.
While the film contains lots of comedy and action, there are still plenty of heartfelt moments and lessons to be learned about kindness, loyalty, and honesty too. As a refreshing change of pace, there is no romance in this movie and it certainly is not missed. With this sort of plot point removed, it gives more focus on the friendships being formed between Pil, Crobar, Jiggler, and Roland, as they fight together to save their town.
While Pil’s Adventures manages to avoid many tired tropes of a typical princess story, it may not have enough depth to keep older audience fully engaged with it. However, Pil’s Adventures is a great movie for children, with the right amount of laughs and cool stunts to keep them thoroughly entertained.