Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (dirs. Liane-Cho Han and Maïlys Vallade)
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 78 mins
UK Distributor: Vue Lumière
UK Release Date: 13 February 2026
WHO’S IN LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN (ENGLISH VERSION)?
Lily Gilliam, Lucille Ainsworth, Francesca Calo, Page Leong, Jayne Taini, Brent Mukai, Jessica DiSalvo, Avril Kagan, Rhodes Carroll, Michael C. Pizzuto
WHO’S IN LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN (FRENCH VERSION)?
Loïse Charpentier, Emmylou Homs, Victoria Grosbois, Yumi Fujimori, Cathy Cerdà, Marc Arnaud, Laetitia Coryn, Haylee Issembourg, Isaac Schoumsky, François Raison
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Liane-Cho Han and Maïlys Vallade (directors, writers), Eddine Noël and Aude Py (writers), Claire La Combe, Edwina Liard, Henri Magalon and Nidia Santiago (producers), Mari Fukuhara (composer), Ludovic Versace (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A young Belgian girl (Gilliam/Charpentier) grows up in 60s Japan…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN?
When we’re young – like very, very young – we tend to believe we are at the centre of the universe. Since we haven’t yet developed an understanding of the wider world around us, nor have we been taught the concept of sharing with and caring for other people, everything is all about us and us alone. It is therefore the job of our caregivers and the world at large to teach us from as early an age as possible that we are not, in fact, the centre of the universe but instead just a mere speck within it, and that what we need to do in order to survive and live our life to the fullest is to take the lessons we have learned about being good and honest, and apply that to others during the short time that we have.
This message is at the core of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, an utterly adorable animated feature which beautifully visualises what it is like to be a child, particularly one during those early stages where we think of ourselves as the most important being to have ever existed. It is also a surprisingly mature meditation on how the opposite is the real truth that we must all face at some point, whether it’s during childhood or well into adulthood (though if you are an adult and still need to have this lesson taught to you, then I seriously don’t know what to tell you).
The film is an adaptation of the semiautobiographical childhood memoir The Character of Rain by Belgian author Amélie Nothomb, with the titular little Amélie (voiced in English by Lily Gilliam, and in the original French version by Loïse Charpentier) serving as narrator. She begins our story with a recollection of how she was deemed to be in a vegetative state shortly after being born in 60s Japan, and how for the first two years of her life she silently watched her parents and two older siblings live their lives as the world goes by around them, whilst internally coming to the conclusion that her condition must make her a god among mere mortals.
A sudden earthquake on her second birthday, however, unexpectedly causes her to finally become a mobile toddler, one that’s prone to major temper tantrums as she rejects her family and their attempts to nurture her. Eventually, a couple of things help calm her down: first, a piece of white chocolate given to her by a visiting grandparent; and second is the arrival of Nishio-san (Francesca Calo/Victoria Groisbros), a Japanese nanny recommended by the family’s stern landlady Kashima-san (Page Leong/Yumi Fujimori). It is with her whom Amélie forms a particularly close bond, as she learns more about the wonders of the world surrounding her and how she, her family, Nishio-san and others ultimately fit into it.
Much like the world that Amélie slowly experiences around her, there is plenty of beauty to behold throughout the film, and what’s particularly outstanding is that such beauty isn’t purely limited to its stunning animation style. While that is indeed a major source of visual pleasure, with its vibrant watercolour-inspired hand-drawn images creating some truly imaginative and eye-popping visuals, directors and co-writers Liane-Cho Han and Maïlys Vallade find smaller, more effective character-based moments for their audience to become utterly absorbed by, all told through the eyes of a very young child who doesn’t understand much beyond their innocent sense of self-importance.
For instance, when she sees a parent in floods of tears over a close loss, it sparks a sudden curiosity within Amélie about the concept of death and grief, triggering a domino effect among not just her but other members of the household, including Nishio-san whose own recollection of losing her own family during wartime bombing raids is hauntingly symbolised via kitchen meal preparation. Moments like these stay with you longer than even the beautiful animation that’s bringing them to life, because they create a much broader and more dimensional portrait than you’d expect a movie of this nature and especially this perspective to be.
But the film is never weighed down by its heavier themes of life, death, and everything in between. Instead, Han and Vallade maintain a lovely tone that sees little Amélie closely observe the nature and creatures around her with a real sense of infantile wonder that almost feels dream-like in nature. Some scenes even touch upon metaphysical imagery as Amélie flaunts her supposed god-like divinity in sequences that recall the fantastical nature of Studio Ghibli’s most cherished entries (aspects of the animation style, particularly in the designs of certain characters, certainly recall the fluid anime strokes from Ghibli’s in-house team). It is always striking to look at, and even more so since you are so bonded with these characters and their own plentiful connections with one another that brings real humanity to such a simple yet complex exploration of early life.
It is a film for anyone who’s ever been a child and had not just that vivid curiosity for the complicated world around them, but also that godly pretence about themselves where everything and everyone exists to serve them and them alone. It feeds into that mentality beautifully, but even more so the ultimate realisation of how mortal and unmistakably human we truly are, in the most divine and God-like ways possible.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is a beautifully animated and thematically rich representation of early life and learning about not just the complex world around us, but also how it is much bigger than ourselves than we may initially believe it to be, which it conveys with a vibrant and adorable nature that anyone will fall in love with.
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