It's been a long, strange road getting The Little Prince onto American screens. A notable hit overseas through the end of last year, the animated adaptation of the beloved novel was set to premiere through Paramount Pictures, but the distributor dropped the film unexpectedly. Netflix picked it up quickly following Paramount's big drop, but nothing much has been heard about what the plans were for the roll-out of the film on the streaming service until today.
Earlier today, Netflix debuted a brand new trailer for the film, which still looks amazing, and also set a release date for its premiere on the streaming platform (and in a limited theatrical run), which will begin on August 5th. The acquisition of The Little Prince shows cunning in the Netflix push to expand its brand into film where its deal with Adam Sandler has showed a severe lack of ingenuity, essentially looking for the most basic, unneeded way to get attention there is instead of looking to make their own stamp.
The Little Prince represents the same side of the streaming platform that led them to pick up Adam Wingard's impossibly anticipated adaptation of the anime Death Note, as well as Bong Joon-ho's next project, Okja; there's also new films by Angelina Jolie and David Ayer in the pipeline, as well as a new Bob Odenkirk comedy. To a degree, I shouldnt be surprised that films as promising as these are being matched by new movies by Sandler and Kevin James, but there was, for a moment, some hope that Netflix would push for something different than the majors. We'll see how the next round of pick-ups go, but for now, I'm just waiting to see how this latest iteration of The Little Prince comes out.
Here's the latest trailer for The Little Prince:
Here's the official synopsis for the film:
A little girl lives in a very grown-up world with her mother, who tries to prepare her for it. Her neighbor, the Aviator, introduces the girl to an extraordinary world where anything is possible, the world of the Little Prince.
