Michel Ocelot showed the influence of great German silhouettist Lotte Reiniger in Princes And Princesses (2000). But he surpasses himself with this Arabian Nights tale of brotherly loyalty that uses the fairy-tale format to pass powerful comment on the need for tolerance between the Middle East’s faiths.
Quite simply, it’s a visual masterpiece that combines cut-outs with CGI and the mesmeric beauty of Islamic art to create a magical world, in which birds with rainbow wings stand between the blonde Azur and Asmar, the estranged Arab friend of his childhood, as they try to rescue the Djinn Fairy from her Crystal Cell.