Locarno Review: Mu-Ki-Ra gently reveals the monster in us all

We have so many stories about monsters and men (and at least one about monsters and minions). Having the monstrous as a foil tends to reveal how similar we are to the beasts rather than how different. Humans are capable of such cruelty and violence. By the same token, monsters are often misunderstood, wounded, simply trying to survive in a world that is eager to hate them, persecute them, or even kill them. It's a (kind of) tale as old as time; fitting, since as I was watching the wonderful Mu-Ki-Ra (competing for Locarno's new Kids Aware la Mobiliarie), I kept thinking of that famous final line of Beauty and the Beast's prologue: For who could ever learn to love a beast?

That question, if you tilt your head, basically becomes: Who could ever learn to fully love themself? Because all of us have base urges, mean thoughts, monstrous tendencies. No one is fully good or bad. We all contain multitudes, sometimes frightening multitudes. This idea is at the core of Mu-Ki-Ra, a kid-friendly movie that has a surprising depth to it. When the film starts, it feels like a fairly simple straightforward story. But as it reveals itself -- the wrinkles in its plot, its thematic richness -- it becomes something more exciting and complex. This is more than just an adventure through the jungle. It's an adventure into the very souls of its characters, into their hearts. And empathy and understanding are the ultimate treasures.

Cleo is a 13-year-old girl who takes care of her younger brother Martin. They live in a town that is almost devoid of adults. Just outside the town's limits is a jungle, deep and dark and full of monsters. Most of the grown-ups in town have set out to fight the monsters, and none of them ever return. Save one, a tough woman who lost her leg in the battle to save her son from an encroaching monster, a battle she ultimately lost. The town lives under a veil of fear and dread, wondering when the next attack will come, when the next person will be taken. A wall of the fallen and lost is a centerpiece in the town, a kind of massive memorial to those who gave their lives in the noble fight.

Things are so dire that now, this badass warrior woman has decided to start training the kids, making a youthful army that will stage a (hopefully) decisive attack against the monsters and bring this whole thing to an end. Martin is eager to join in the training, and sadly, he is the first of this new crop of minute soldiers to fall. He is devoured by the monster Mukira (the film's title is hyphenated, I think, to mimic the monster's slow enunciation of his name). Cleo receives a message from a mystical woman in the jungle that she can save Martin if she manages to find the monster and bring him to her, but she only has three days.

I have to interrupt myself here because Cleo also receives a sidekick from this mystical woman (who is equal parts tree, hair, and jowls -- her design is so cool): an adorable tamandua (a kind of anteater) named Iolo who absolutely steals the show. He's a sweet little buffoon whose super-long tongue is constantly causing him problems, getting tangled and wrapped around and stuck to various objects and characters. A lot of movies have cute mute sidekicks, but it's been a while since one was such a home run for me. Like, every time Iolo got into another jam, I was cracking up. (I haven't, like, totally cracked up in a long time.)

(Maybe also worth noting here how funny it is that this is the second animated feature this year about a girl, her little brother, and a furry white animal sidekick going on an adventure in the jungle. The other being Born in the Jungle, of course. The movies aren't really similar beyond this superficial level, but they'd make a great double feature nonetheless.)

Once Cleo and Iolo find Mukira, and manage to calm him down, they start striking up an unexpected friendship. Cleo sees a lot of herself in the monster, strangely. There's a fantastic musical number (the film has maybe five or six total) about the material they're both made of that takes on a cool minimalist/impressionistic presentation, two vibrant flying dots twirling and rhyming with each other, occasionally forming the outlines of the characters. As Cleo understands Mukira better, she also gains a better sense of herself, a confidence in naming who she is, what makes her her. This expands out into a better understanding of the world around her, the society that hates because it has always hated. The fear that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The unwillingness to look at difference without judgment and disdain. Again and again, Mu-Ki-Ra surprised me with how deftly it weaves its themes into what could've gotten by with just being a fun adventure.

My beloved Iolo

And it is a very fun adventure. This is a great-looking movie, with a beautiful color palette, cute character designs, and fun set pieces. It moves along at a great clip, occasionally popping back to the village to punctuate the urgency of the larger situation (not just Cleo's personal quest). Plot details are revealed at just the right moments to make you lean in go, ahhhh. This is really strong filmmaking/storytelling, a real pleasure to watch.

In a lot of ways, Mu-Ki-Ra feels like it harkens back to an era of family-friendly movie that feels like it's sort of been lost along the way. A lot of the movies I grew up on had a darkness to them, a weight. They didn't talk down to kids. They understood that young viewers have tremendous emotional intelligence, because they still have an openness to receive. Their hearts haven't been hardened and slammed shut by cynicism or irony or societal pressures. Mu-Ki-Ra feels like one of those movies, giving viewers a lot to chew on and think about, and reflecting the complexities of the world in a way that's approachable but not dumbed-down. It holds up a mirror and invites those watching to really think about what they see in the reflection, warts and all.