I Watch Ballet: Coppelia

 

Coppelia

No one talks in the town, instead communicating through interpretive dance. There’s the mayor, a baker, a hairdresser, a bicycle repair man and (helpfully) a ballet teacher. Everyone is interested in Coppelia, a virtual celebrity, and her big C brand. Except maybe not the girl who runs the juice bar, whose bike has broken and has a crush on the bicycle repair boy.

Dr Coppelius comes to town. He scans everyone according to their strengths, which are characterised by a smiley face, shaking hands, a heart, a bicep and a brain. The bicycle repair boy has the highest heart rating, to the top of the scale. Dr Coppelius opens a building where he sucks the energy out of people, making them appear CGI’d versions of themselves. He uses this to power his CGI dancing servants, most notably Coppelia herself. They try to get the bicycle repair boy to come in with a puff of pink perfume. The juice bar girl, her friends and the bicycle repair boy’s friends must try to rescue him from the strange laboratory.

It's a ballet!

I’m not really into ballet and have never seen a production of the one that this film is based on (it has a mechanical doll dancer rather than the CGI stuff) so can’t really tell you anything informed about it. This is clear and well-staged, with some fun bits, the slightly stylised sets and cartoony motion-capture capturing the techno-fairy-tale themes. Can you dance in an evil fashion? Why yes, yes you can as Dr Coppelius proves, though his dark moustache and goatee must take some credit for his sinister vibe.

Watch This: A charming wordless dance modern fairy tale
Don’t Watch This: You want someone to explain what’s going on with words
This Is The Last Film I Watched in 2022: Finally bringing to an end last year's reviews