Friday, March 8, 2013

Michel Ocelot's "Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest"

In this animated feature directed by Michel Ocelot, a sojourning Saracen widow is employed as a nanny by a European nobleman. The widow Jenane treats her young charge Azur with the same love that she gives her biological son, Asmar. Both boys grow up listening to Jenane sing about the Djinn Fairy who awaits a rescuer to break her curse.

The two boys are close as brothers until Azur's father, annoyed by the rough horseplay between the children, and uncomfortable with the bilingual upbringing that Azur is receiving from Jenane,  expels the nanny and her son.