The animated world may currently be dominated by Pixar (see: Disney) and Ghibli, but it’s always interesting to see new stories and artistic styles coming through. One such eye-catching work is Chico & Rita, a story set in the world of latin jazz.
More a story for adults, we’re following Chico, a talented pianist, and Rita, an expectional singer. They begin their journey in Cuba, 1948, but their careers will eventually take them – not always as a pair, as the drama of life dictates – to New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Hollywood and Paris. And from the look of the trailer, they soak up all of the artistic inspiration those exotic locales have to offer.
Empire have an exclusive peek at director’s Javier Mascal & Fernando Trueba’s new film. This clip, a highly stylised dream sequence, draws inspiration from the likes of Saul Bass to Fritz Freleng, as Chico re-imagines again and again the pain of his separation from his muse. We should probably mention that the very end of this clip is more indicative of the film’s overall style, but this is just one flourish you can expect amid the songs of Thelonious Monk, Cole Porter and Dizzie Gillespie. Altogether now: ‘niiiiiiiice’.
Chico & Rita is out in the UK on November 19.