I have long admired the work of Kon Ichikawa, and even got to interview him in New York in the '80s. But his foray into puppet movies with TOPO GIGIO is an embarrassing waste of talent.
The popular Italian mouse character is a '60s equivalent to more recent critters like the Teletubbies -either you like him and think he's 'cute' or its nausea time. Starring in a feature-length film he wears out his welcome in a hurry.
Ever the artist and craftsman, Kon is careful to use interesting lighting and color control in depicting the mouse's non-adventures. Human beings are stylized by largely being shot so we only see their shoes and pastel-colored socks, with a nearly film noir emphasis on low-key lighting throughout.
The minimal plot line concerning a bank robbery, James Bond-style bomb and Cold War era missile espionage takes a back seat to supposedly cuddly hamming by the diminutive star. Watching him take a shower or create a new kind of icky "sexiness" wearing supposedly provocative costumes was more than off-putting to me. This is a film that is literally torture to watch -probably might have been a bit hit at the Abu Ghraib cinema.
Perhaps the lowest points come when Gigio feels compelled to sing, and the repeated antics of two little fleas who like to feed on him. Having seen many an Ichikawa film that deals with perversion or obsession (ODD OBSESSION is one of his best works), perhaps the maestro was being intentionally perverse while hiding behind the mask of shooting a children's movie.
The final reel of intended pathos, as Gigio's contribution to saving the world is cruelly ignored by ungrateful humans, was about as bad as cinema can get -underscored by Kon's mis-applied technical prowess.
