Long Way North

Rémi Chayé’s Long Way North is an ani­mat­ed adven­ture set in 1882, where Sasha, a young Russ­ian princess, embarks on an expe­di­tion from Saint Peters­burg to the North Pole in order to solve the mys­tery regard­ing the dis­ap­pear­ance of her grand­fa­ther, a renowned explor­er. This tale of per­son­al dis­cov­ery reveals much more than just facts, but is ulti­mate­ly about a woman con­sol­i­dat­ing her identity.

On their jour­ney, crew dynam­ics are put to the test on a num­ber of occa­sions. Risky and unde­sir­able cir­cum­stances befall them at every turn, be it through their strug­gles to over­come night­mar­ish­ly chop­py seas, or falling vic­tim to col­laps­ing ice­bergs (which act as a metaphor­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the cracks that being to show with­in the group).

The film’s poignant high con­cerns Sasha’s jour­ney with­in a jour­ney. She sub­tly tran­si­tions from spoilt aris­to­crat – where she has every­thing hand­ed to her – to a vital team mem­ber work­ing hard to earn her keep. The film con­veys sen­ti­ments of per­son­al pro­gres­sion and unde­terred deter­mi­na­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in its grad­ual unveil­ing of her grandfather’s where­abouts. This, in turn, leads Sasha to ask tough ques­tions about the preser­va­tion of the fam­i­ly lega­cy. Pri­or to this, the film’s sim­plis­tic quest nar­ra­tive and its fail­ure to flesh out Sasha’s char­ac­ter sug­gests the film is aimed at the very young. How­ev­er, this piv­otal ele­ment of com­plex char­ac­ter devel­op­ment is like­ly to meet the more com­plex expec­ta­tions of the adult viewer.

The visu­als, espe­cial­ly on account of an ani­ma­tion style that is a cross between a water­colour paint­ing and that of a more abstract mode, are where the film’s strengths tru­ly lie. Colours are com­pli­men­ta­ry to the fluc­tu­at­ing moods through­out the film, exposed through vibran­cy in the ear­li­er sequences to por­tray wealth and aris­toc­ra­cy, shift­ing to dark and drea­ry tones occur­ring dur­ing the per­ilous voy­age itself.

Eeri­ly sepia-toned flash­backs are indica­tive of the pas­sage of time, and not-far-from-real­is­tic scenic views and fault­less posi­tion­ing of light­ing shows com­mend­able atten­tion to detail. The use of facial expres­sions adds sub­stance to the char­ac­ters, which may oth­er­wise have gone unno­ticed due to their two-dimen­sion­al car­toon form. As such, this oth­er­wise slight­ly under­whelm­ing ani­ma­tion is ele­vat­ed due to its abun­dant pro­vi­sion of visu­al pleasure.