The Red Turtle

{{Infobox film

| name = The Red Turtle

| image = The Red Turtle.png

| caption = US theatrical release poster

| director = Michaël Dudok de Wit

| music = Laurent Perez del Mar

| editing = Céline Kélépikis

| distributor = {{Plainlist|

Wild Bunch (France)
Toho (Japan)

}}

| released = {{Film date|2016|5|18|Cannes|2016|6|29|France|2016|9|17|Japan|df=y}}

| runtime = 80 minutes

| country = {{Plainlist|

Japan
France

}}

| language =

| budget = €10 million{{cite web |title=Interview: Michaël Dudok De Wit, director of 'The Red Turtle' |url=https://www.animationforadults.com/2017/05/interview-michael-dudok-de-wit-director.html |website=AFA: Animation For Adults : Animation News, Reviews, Articles, Podcasts and More |access-date=17 November 2023}}

| gross = $6.6 million{{cite web | title=The Red Turtle (2017) - International Box Office Results | url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=theredturtle.htm | website=Box Office Mojo | access-date=8 September 2016}}

| producer = {{Plainlist|

Toshio Suzuki{{cite web|url=http://www.primalinea.com/latortuerouge/descriptions/index.html|title=The Red Turtle - descriptions|publisher=Prima Linea Productions|access-date=23 May 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605025838/http://www.primalinea.com/latortuerouge/descriptions/index.html|archive-date=5 June 2016|df=dmy-all}}
Isao Takahata
Vincent Maraval
Pascal Caucheteux
Grégoire Sorlat

}}

| writer = {{Plainlist|

Michaël Dudok de Wit
Pascale Ferran

}}

| studio = {{Plainlist|

Studio Ghibli
Wild Bunch
Prima Linea Productions
Why Not Productions{{cite web|url=http://affif-sitepublic-media-prod.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/pdf/0001/06/1252130995c14e0087c3c684663b8810d00c3a1f.pdf|title=The Red Turtle French press kit|publisher=Wild Bunch |access-date=22 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160522235941/http://affif-sitepublic-media-prod.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/pdf/0001/06/1252130995c14e0087c3c684663b8810d00c3a1f.pdf|url-status=live |archive-date=22 May 2016 |language=fr}}
Arte France Cinéma
CN4 Productions
Belvision

}}

The Red Turtle ({{langx|fr|La Tortue rouge}}; {{langx|ja|レッドタートルある島の物語|Reddo Tātoru: Aru Shima no Monogatari}}) is a 2016 animated fantasy drama film directed by Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit who co-wrote the film with French screenwriter Pascale Ferran. The film is an international co-production between Japanese anime company Studio Ghibli and several French companies, including Wild Bunch and Belvision.{{efn|Produced with the support of Eurimages, La Région Poitou-Charentes, Le Département de la Charente (with Pôle Image Magelis and CNC), La Region Wallonne, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakudodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Toho, with the participation of Canal+, Ciné+ and Arte France, in association with Cinémage 9, Palatine Etoile 11, Palatine Etoile 12, and the BNP Paribas Fortis Film Fiance.}} The film, which has no dialogue, tells the story of a man who becomes shipwrecked on an uninhabited island where his attempts at escape are repeatedly thwarted by a red turtle.{{cite web|last=Amidi|first=Amid|url=http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/watch-trailer-michael-dudok-de-wits-red-turtle-debuting-cannes-139647.html|title=Watch the Trailer for Michael Dudok de Wit's 'The Red Turtle,' Debuting At Cannes|work=Cartoon Brew|date=13 May 2016|access-date=23 May 2016}}

The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 69th Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2016.{{cite web |url=http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-live-stream-2016-film-festival-lineup-list |title=2016 Cannes Film Festival Announces Lineup |access-date=14 April 2016 |work=IndieWire|date=14 April 2016 }}{{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/cannes-film-festival-official-selection-lineup-2016-1201753269/ |title=Cannes 2016: Film Festival Unveils Official Selection Lineup |access-date=14 April 2016 |work=Variety|date=14 April 2016 }} The film was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film for the 89th Academy Awards.

Plot

A man set adrift by a storm wakes up on a beach. He discovers that he is on an uninhabited island with plenty of fresh water, fruit, and a dense bamboo forest. It is dominated by a smooth rock hill. After a few nights he begins to hallucinate, seeing a bridge to lead him offshore and later a string quartet playing on the beach. He builds a raft from bamboo and attempts to sail away, but his raft is destroyed by an unseen creature in the sea, forcing him back to the island. He tries again with a larger raft, but is again foiled by the creature. A third attempt ends similarly, but this time he sees the creature: a giant red hawksbill sea turtle.

That evening, the man sees the red turtle crawling up the beach. In anger, he hits it on the head with a bamboo stick, then flips it over onto its back, stranding it. While working on another raft, he feels remorse and returns to the turtle but it is too heavy for him to flip over. He fetches water for it, but when he returns, it is dead. He falls asleep next to it. In the morning, the man is surprised to find a red-haired woman lying unconscious inside the shell, which has split. He fetches water for her and builds a shelter to protect her from the sun. When rain hits, the woman wakes up and goes swimming. The woman casts the shell adrift on the sea and the man does the same to his raft. The two reconcile and fall in love.

The couple have a red-haired son. The curious boy finds a glass bottle and his father and mother tell him their story through pictographs. After accidentally falling into the sea, the boy learns he is a natural swimmer, and swims with some green sea turtles. He swims back to his mother, who hugs him and looks out at the sea with apprehension. The boy grows into a young man.

One day, a tsunami hits the island, destroying most of the bamboo forest and separating the family. After the tsunami recedes, the young man searches for his parents and finds his mother wounded with no sign of his father. He swims out to sea and is joined by three turtles. They find his father clinging to a large bamboo tree. Just as he slips under the water, they arrive and rescue him. The young man also finds his glass bottle, and the family clean up the wreckage and burn the dead bamboo.

A few years later, the young man has a dream about swimming away into the sea; the water becomes static, allowing him to swim to the top of a huge wave, from which he can see further over the horizon. Seeing this as his calling, he says goodbye to his parents in the morning and swims away with the three green turtles. The man and woman continue to live on the island and grow old together. One night, after gazing at the Moon, the man closes his eyes and dies. The woman grieves. She lies next to him, and lays her hand on his. As her hand transforms into a flipper and she transforms back into the red turtle, she crawls down the beach and swims away.

Production

The film was co-produced by Wild Bunch and Studio Ghibli in association with Why Not Productions, along with funding and support from Prima Linea Productions, Arte France Cinéma, CN4 Productions, and Belvision in France, and Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakudodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Toho in Japan.

The film originated in 2008 when Wild Bunch co-founder Vincent Maraval visited the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli in Tokyo. Maraval met Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki who showed him Father and Daughter (2000), an animated short film written and directed by Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit. Miyazaki told Maraval that if the studio was to ever produce a film with a foreign animator de Wit would be the one, and asked Miraval to locate him.{{cite web|last=Goodfellow|first=Melanie|date=24 April 2014|url=https://www.screendaily.com/cannes/cannes-wild-bunch-unveils-first-titles/5086970.article|title=Wild Bunch unveils first titles on Cannes slate|work=Screen Daily|access-date=24 April 2015}} The head of acquisitions at Wild Bunch tracked de Wit in London, where Miraval subsequently met him to discuss the possibility of producing an animated feature film. De Wit was uninterested at first, but changed his mind when he learned Miyazaki was interested to collaborate with him. The screenplay was written by de Wit and Pascale Ferran.{{Cite web|last=Père|first=Olivier|date=18 February 2014|url=http://www.arte.tv/sites/fr/olivierpere/2014/02/18/arte-france-cinema-coproduit-the-red-turtle-premier-long-metrage-danimation-de-michael-dudok-de-wit/|title=Arte France Cinéma coproduit The Red Turtle, premier long métrage d'animation de Michael Dudok de Wit|language=fr|work=arte.tv|publisher=Arte|access-date=24 April 2015}}

Release

The film had its world premiere on 18 May at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed in the Un Certain Regard section.{{Cite web|url=http://www.festival-cannes.fr/assets/File/WEB-2016/PDF/2016_HORAIRES%20CANNES%20web%281%29.pdf|title=Screenings Guide|publisher=Cannes Film Festival|access-date=15 May 2016}} On 13 June, it was screened as the opening film of the 2016 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.{{Cite web|last=Goodfellow|first=Melanie|date=28 April 2016|url=http://www.screendaily.com/news/annecy-animation-festival-unveils-2016-line-up/5103120.article|title=Annecy animation festival unveils 2016 line-up|work=Screen International|access-date=15 May 2016}} The regular French release was 29 June 2016.{{Cite web|url=http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=243780.html|title=La Tortue rouge|language=fr|work=AlloCiné|access-date=15 May 2016}}

It was released in Japan on 17 September 2016, by Toho.{{cite web |url= http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-12-11/studio-ghibli-co-produced-film-the-red-turtle-opens-next-september/.96375|title= Studio Ghibli Co-Produced Film The Red Turtle Opens Next September|date= 11 December 2015|access-date= 12 December 2015|work= Anime News Network}} The movie was released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Walt Disney Japan through the Ghibli Ga Ippai label on March 17, 2017, with the Blu-Ray version also containing Michaël Dudok de Wit's other short films.{{Cite web|url=https://www.disney.co.jp/studio/news/20170111_03.html|title = 待望のスタジオジブリ最新作！『レッドタートルある島の物語』ブルーレイディスク・セット＆DVD、3/17(金)発売！｜ブルーレイ・DVD・デジタル配信｜ディズニー公式}}

In May 2016, Sony Pictures Classics acquired the North and Latin American distribution rights for the film{{Cite web|last=Ford|first=Rebecca|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-sony-pictures-classics-takes-895659|title=Cannes: Sony Pictures Classics Takes 'The Red Turtle'|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=19 May 2016|access-date=26 May 2016}} and was released in the United States on 20 January 2017.

The Red Turtle was played in the London Film Festival on 5 October 2016 and eventually released in the United Kingdom by StudioCanal on 26 May 2017.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.studiocanal.co.uk/title/the-red-turtle-2015/|title = The Red Turtle (2015) -Studiocanal UK - Europe's largest distribution studio STUDIOCANAL UK}}

Reception

=Critical response=

The Red Turtle received critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 93% score based on 169 reviews, with an average of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Red Turtle adds to Studio Ghibli's estimable legacy with a beautifully animated effort whose deceptively simple story boasts narrative layers as richly absorbing as its lovely visuals."{{cite web | url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_red_turtle | title=The Red Turtle (La tortue rouge) (2017) | work=Rotten Tomatoes | publisher=Flixster | access-date=22 January 2017}} Metacritic reports an 86 out of 100 rating, based on 32 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".{{cite web | url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-red-turtle | title=The Red Turtle Reviews | work=Metacritic | publisher=CBS Interactive | access-date=27 November 2016}}

In Japan it was released in theaters on 17 September and grossed a total of $328,750 during its first weekend.{{cite web | url=https://kotaku.com/studio-ghiblis-new-movie-isnt-doing-well-in-japan-1787127063 | title=Studio Ghibli's New Movie Isn't Doing Well In Japan | work=Kotaku | date=27 September 2016 | publisher=Brian Ashcraft | access-date=23 September 2017}}

=Accolades=

class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:small"

! Award

! Date of ceremony

! Category

! Recipient(s)

! Result

! class="unsortable"| {{nowrap|{{Abbr|Ref(s)|References}}}}

Academy Awards

| 26 February 2017

| Best Animated Feature

| Michaël Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki

| {{nom}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{cite news |url=http://edit.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/oscar-nominations-2017-complete-list-nominees-960044 |title=Oscars: 'La La Land' Ties Record With 14 Nominations |first=Kimberly |last=Nordyke |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=24 January 2017 |access-date=24 January 2017 |df=dmy-all }}{{dead link|date=November 2018|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/2017/film/news/2017-oscar-nominations-academy-awards-nominees-1201968107/ |title=Oscar Nominations: Complete List |magazine=Variety |date=24 January 2017 |access-date=24 January 2017}}

rowspan="5"| Annie Awards

| rowspan="5"| 4 February 2017

| Best Animated Feature — Independent

| The Red Turtle

| {{won}}

| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| {{cite web |url=http://annieawards.org/nominees/#1 |title=44th Annie Award Nominees |publisher=International Animated Film Society |date= 28 November 2016 |access-date= 29 November 2016}}

Outstanding Achievement, Animated Effects in an Animated Production

| Mouloud Oussid

| {{nom}}

Outstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated Feature Production

| Michaël Dudok de Wit

| {{nom}}

Outstanding Achievement, Music in an Animated Feature Production

| Laurent Perez del Mar

| {{nom}}

Outstanding Achievement, Writing in an Animated Feature Production

| Michaël Dudok de Wit and Pascale Ferran

| {{nom}}

rowspan="3"| Cannes Film Festival

| rowspan="3"| 21 May 2016

| Un Certain Regard Special Prize

| rowspan="3"| Michaël Dudok de Wit

| {{won}}

| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;"|{{cite web|last=Amidi|first=Amid|url=http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/michael-dudok-de-wits-red-turtle-wins-cannes-139866.html|title=Michael Dudok de Wit's 'The Red Turtle' Wins At Cannes|date=22 May 2016|access-date=22 May 2016|work=Cartoon Brew}}

Prize Un Certain Regard

| {{nom}}

Camera d'Or

| {{nom}}

Chicago Film Critics Association

| 15 December 2016

| Best Animated Film

| rowspan="4"| The Red Turtle

| {{nom}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagofilmcritics.org/component/content/article/148-cfca-nominees-2016 |title=The 2016 Chicago Film Critics Association Award Nominees |date=11 December 2016 |publisher=Chicago Film Critics Association |access-date=12 December 2016}}

Critics' Choice Awards

| 11 December 2016

| Best Animated Feature

| {{nom}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{cite web|url=http://www.criticschoice.com/critics-choice-awards|title=Critics' Choice Awards Timeline|publisher=Critics' Choice Awards|access-date=26 July 2021}}

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

| 4 December 2016

| Best Animated Film

| {{draw|Runner-up}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{cite web|url=http://lafca.net/years/2016.html |title=42nd Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2016 Winners |publisher=Los Angeles Film Critics Association |date=4 December 2016 |access-date=5 December 2016}}

rowspan="2"| Magritte Award

| rowspan="2"| 4 February 2017

| Best Foreign Film in Coproduction

| {{won}}

| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| {{cite news|title=Magritte du Cinéma: "Les premiers les derniers" et "Keeper" sont favoris|url=http://www.lalibre.be/culture/cinema/magritte-du-cinema-les-premiers-les-derniers-et-keeper-sont-favoris-5874f0f0cd708a17d55fc4af|access-date=10 January 2017|work=La Libre Belgique|date=10 January 2017|language=fr}}

Best Sound

| Nils Fauth and Peter Soldan

| {{nom}}

Online Film Critics Society

| 3 January 2017

| Best Animated Feature

| rowspan="4"| The Red Turtle

| {{nom}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{cite web|url=http://ofcs.org/awards/2016-awards-20th-annual/ |title=20th Annual Online Film Critics Society Awards Nominations |publisher=Online Film Critics Society |date=27 December 2016|access-date=27 December 2016}}

San Francisco Film Critics Circle

| 11 December 2016

| Best Animated Feature

| {{won}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{cite web|url=http://www.awardsdaily.com/2016/12/09/san-francisco-film-critics-circle-nominations/ |title=San Francisco Film Critics Circle Nominations! |first=Marshall |last=Flores |publisher=AwardsDaily.com |date=9 December 2016 |access-date=10 December 2016}}
{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/moonlight-named-best-picture-by-san-francisco-film-critics-circle-955302 |title='Moonlight' Named Best Picture by San Francisco Film Critics Circle |first=Kimberly |last=Nordyke |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=12 December 2016 |access-date=12 December 2016}}

Satellite Awards

| 19 February 2017

| Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature

| {{nom}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/2016-satellite-awards-nominees-listed-includes-moonlight-la-la-land-950935|title=Satellite Awards Nominees Revealed|last=Kilday|first=Gregg|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=29 November 2016|access-date=29 November 2016}}

Toronto Film Critics Association

| 11 December 2016

| Best Animated Film

| {{draw|Runner-up}}

| style="text-align:center;"| {{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/moonlight-named-best-film-by-toronto-film-critics-955058|title='Moonlight' Named Best Film by Toronto Film Critics|last=Vlessing|first=Etan|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=12 December 2016|access-date=12 December 2016}}

Notes

References

External links

{{Official website|http://latortuerouge-lefilm.com/}} {{in lang|fr}}
{{Official website|http://red-turtle.jp}} {{in lang|ja}}
{{Official website|http://sonyclassics.com/theredturtle/#}} {{in lang|en}}
{{IMDb title|3666024}}
{{Mojo title|theredturtle}}
{{Rotten Tomatoes|the_red_turtle}}
{{Metacritic film}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170110153631/http://www.sonyclassics.com/awards-information/screenplays/theredturtle_screenplay.pdf Official screenplay] via the Wayback Machine

{{Navboxes

|title = Awards for The Red Turtle

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Category:2016 directorial debut films

Category:Animated films about turtles

Category:Animated films set on islands