A French animated feature, in English; recommended for adults and children 8 years old and up.
“...‘Charles XVI, King of Tachycardia' is a monarch who lives primarily to hunt. No creature is too small or too helpless to escape being the target of his murderous zeal, not even the tiny birds that nest in the turrets of his huge and forbidding castle. But the king's passion for venery is not limited to the pursuit of wildlife. Undaunted by his own pinched mug, crossed eyes and permanent five-o'clock shadow, Charles harbors a yen for a charming little shepherd girl, but she loves and is loved by a chimneysweep.... Helped by an impertinent and wily mockingbird whose children are the constant targets of the king's archers, the lovers escape to the kingdom's sunless underground city (a nightmarish vision straight out of Metropolis), where they help to lead a revolt....
“Rarely has a feature-length animated work been blessed with such charm, wit and graphic elegance. (Paul Grimault, the Walt Disney of France, worked on this masterpiece of cell animation in the classic style for some 30 years. He collaborated with poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, who wrote Children of Paradise and many other French film classics of the 30s and 40s.) Their richly textured fable about tyranny and freedom, based on a fairy tale by Hans Andersen, will delight audiences of all ages.” Peter Scarlet, San Francisco Int'l Film Festival '84