Underplayed Gems

The Tadpole and the Whale (1987)

The Tadpole and the Whale poster
Original title
La Grenouille et la Baleine
Directed by
Jean-Claude Lord
Genre
comedy film, adventure film, children's film
Country
Canada
Runtime
1h 31m
Rating
6.0 of 10 from 8 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A young girl who can breathe underwater befriends dolphins and whales in a small Quebec town. She has adventures with them in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

whimsicalgentlemagicalplayfulcalmwarmlightheartedimaginative

What happens

Tadpole and the Whale (French: La Grenouille et la baleine) is a Canadian children's fantasy film, directed by Jean-Claude Lord and released in 1988 as part of the Tales for All series. The film stars Fanny Lauzier as Daphné, a young girl living in Mingan, Quebec who has developed the ability to breathe underwater, and who has befriended the dolphins and the whales living near the town in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The film's cast also includes Denis Forest, Marina Orsini, Félix-Antoine Leroux, Jean Lajeunesse, Lise Thouin, Louise Richer, Thomas Donohue, Roland Laroche, Pierre-Olivier Gagnon, Jean-Pierre Leduc, Jean Lafontaine, Jean Lemire, André Doyle, Claude Grisé and Alie Lavoie Gray. The film garnered three Genie Award nominations at the 10th Genie Awards in 1989, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography (Thomas Burstyn) and Best Original Song for "We Are One (Sous la mer)" (Normand Dubé, Guy Trépanier and Nathalie Carson). It also won the Golden Reel Award as the year's top-grossing Canadian film with a gross of C$1.79 million just from Quebec, before it had even opened in English Canada. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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