Scarlet (2025)
Story overview
Princess Scarlet, seeking revenge for her father's murder, finds herself in the 'Land of the Dead,' a surreal afterlife realm. To avoid becoming 'Void' and ceasing to exist, she must complete her quest for vengeance against her nemesis and reach the 'No End Place.' The film follows her perilous journey through this strange world as she confronts challenges that test her resolve and purpose.
Parent Guide
A visually striking animated film that explores dark themes of revenge, mortality, and existential purpose through fantasy elements. While animated, the content deals with mature concepts that may be intense for younger viewers.
Content breakdown
Fantasy violence including revenge quests, confrontations with nemesis characters, and peril in afterlife settings. No graphic realism, but thematic violence related to murder and vengeance is central to plot.
Concepts of death, non-existence ('becoming Void'), and surreal afterlife landscapes may be disturbing. The 'Land of the Dead' setting presents unsettling imagery though in animated style.
Minimal strong language expected in subtitled/dubbed version. Original Japanese dialogue likely contains dramatic expressions but not excessive profanity.
No sexual content or nudity present in this animated fantasy film.
No depiction of substance use or abuse.
High emotional themes including grief over father's murder, desperation to avoid ceasing to exist, and intense revenge motivation. The existential stakes create sustained emotional tension.
Parent tips
This animated film deals with mature themes including revenge, mortality, and existential purpose within a fantasy afterlife setting. The PG-13 rating suggests content may be intense for younger viewers. Consider the emotional maturity of your child regarding themes of death, vengeance, and non-existence. The animation style may soften some intense moments, but the underlying concepts are complex.
Parent chat guide
Parent follow-up questions
- What colors did you see in the movie?
- Did you like the princess character?
- What was your favorite part?
- Why was Scarlet trying to get revenge?
- What do you think the 'Land of the Dead' looked like?
- How did Scarlet feel when she couldn't complete her mission?
- What does it mean to become 'Void' in the story?
- Do you think revenge helped Scarlet feel better?
- How did the animation style affect how you felt about the serious themes?
- How does the film explore existential questions through fantasy?
- What commentary might the director be making about vengeance and closure?
- How does the Japanese cultural perspective on death and afterlife influence the story?
🎭 Story Kernel
At its core, 'Scarlet' is not a story about a flying machine, but about the inheritance of grief and the search for beauty in its wake. The film's true engine is the silent, shared mourning between Raphaël and his daughter Juliette following the mother's death. Raphaël's obsession with building his airplane is a tangible manifestation of his desire to escape the weight of his sorrow—a literal attempt to rise above it. Juliette, meanwhile, processes her loss through her burgeoning artistic sensibility and connection to the natural world. Their parallel journeys, one mechanical and earthbound, the other organic and imaginative, explore different responses to the same void, ultimately questioning whether healing comes from flight or from finding new roots in the scarred earth.
🎬 Visual Aesthetics
Director Pietro Marcello crafts a visual tone poem, bathing the post-WWI French countryside in the hazy, golden light of memory. The cinematography often resembles a moving Impressionist painting, with soft focus and a palette dominated by earthy browns, vibrant greens, and the titular scarlet reds that punctuate the frame—in poppies, fabric, and emotion. The camera adopts a lyrical, observational quality, lingering on faces and landscapes with equal reverence. The fantastical elements, like the spontaneous musical numbers, are woven seamlessly into this textured reality, suggesting how imagination and folklore blossom from the soil of hardship. The contrast between the clunky, grounded mechanics of the airplane and the ethereal, floating camera movements creates the film's central visual tension.
🔍 Details & Easter Eggs
💡 Behind the Scenes
The film is a loose adaptation of Aleksandr Grin's 1923 novel 'Scarlet Sails', transposing its hopeful Russian fantasy to a post-war French setting. Lead actress Raphaël Thiéry, who plays the father, is not a professional actor but a former metalworker, which informed his authentic, hands-on portrayal of an inventor. Much of the film was shot on location in rural northern France, utilizing natural light and the changing seasons to reflect the narrative's passage of time and emotional seasons. The decision to blend live-action with brief, stylized animation sequences reinforces the film's fairy-tale logic and the permeable boundary between Juliette's inner world and her reality.
Where to watch
Streaming availability has not been announced yet.
Trailer
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