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Sep 29, 2016 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

Teenage Sacha is the daughter of a Russian aristocrat in the final years of the 19^th Century. The young girl is grieving the presumed death of her grandfather, a famous explorer whose ship disappeared while on an expedition for the North Pole. Shirking her parents’ plans to marry her off after her debut ball, Sacha runs away north on a personal mission to find her grandpa’s ship.

What starts out little different than your standard Disney Princess adventure turns into something far more interesting and less cookie-cutter by the film’s gripping, final half hour. After learning, predictably, how different the real world is from the lavish life she lived among Russia’s 1%, Sacha eventually finds herself part of a crew seeking out her grandfather’s ship in hopes of cashing out the hefty reward offered by the crown. Sacha’s adaption of the skills required to survive in the harsh environment of an arctic vessel are more compelling than her lessons learned about the plainer lives of poor people. When their ship, too, wrecks and leaves the crew stranded in any icy wasteland, the movie takes a dark turn that’s hard to look away from. Grown men fight for dwindling rations, threaten one another’s lives, and debate whether to abandon their wounded; all of this with a young girl caught in the middle. Most unshakeable of all is a chilling discovery that Sacha makes near the film’s end – it’s something you certainly won’t see in any Disney animated feature.

Long Way North is the feature debut of French animator Remi Chaye, who previously worked on the award-winning The Secret Life of Kells. The animation style here is a mixed bag; while every single frame boasts immense style in its use of color and shadow – every still looks like a beautiful painting – it doesn’t always hold up when the pictures are moving. Less action-intensive scenes cut corners by employing fewer cells, making parts – especially long tracts of dialogues – appear stiff and stilted, almost like a video game cut scene. (It gets better as the film goes on, as the story moves from Russian mansions to the rolling sea.) While adults won’t find much to keep their attention until the film picks up steam in its second half, it’s a great adventure for children with a strong, long-lingering payoff.

Author rating: 6/10