Ballerina

Animation, Adventure, Family

Set in 1879 Paris. An orphan girl dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera house.

The critical consensus

This is a real curiosity, a French animated ballet film clearly aimed at kids but which strays into some of the same areas as Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.

(*) (*) Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent, 14/12/2016

Our heroine, voiced by Elle Fanning, flees an orphanage to follow her dreams all the way to the Paris Opera, in this serviceable French-Canadian animation.

(*) (*) Mike McCahill, The Guardian, 15/12/2016

Ballerina is pleasant but predictable, with pantomime baddies, soaring pop ballads that jar against the period setting and computer animation that renders some faces a little creepy looking. Decent family fare but not exactly a 10 from Len.

(*) (*) Allan Hunter, Daily Express, 16/12/2016

Formulaic French-Canadian animation featuring the voices of Elle Fanning and Dane DeHaan.

(*) (*) Katherine McLaughlin, The List, 19/12/2016

The film does a nice job of capturing the magic of the French capital in the late 19th century and though it gets a bit saccharine, it at least features a heroine working hard to be good at something.

(*) (*) Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 22/12/2016

This charming animation sees two waifs seek their fortune in Paris… but Tchaikovsky would spin in his grave.

(*) (*) Wendy Ide, The Observer, 01/01/2017