Cinema is full of coming-of-age stories, but rarely do they delve back to the very beginnings of a person, before we’re even aware that we are human beings. Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, based on the novel by Amélie Nothomb, begins at the actual birth of Amélie, and follows the first three years of her life. Even though it’s a period in our lives that most of us don’t remember, Little Amélie grasps what it’s like to be brand new, the moments that make us become aware of our lives, and the exploration that is required to figure out who you are — even in your earliest days.
What Is ‘Little Amélie or the Character of Rain’ About?
Little Amélie begins with the birth of Amélie (voiced by Loïse Charpentier). For the first two years of her life, Amélie is quiet, almost a piece of furniture in her family’s home. But Amélie states she was truly born at two and a half years old, when her paternal grandmother gave her her first taste of chocolate, straight from her home country of Belgium. From then on, Amélie starts to form into a fully realised person, curious, strange, and a bit of a mystery to her close family.
Amélie’s family has moved to Japan for her father’s job, and she forms a connection with the family’s housekeeper, Nishio-san (Victoria Grobois). In Nishio-san, Amélie finds someone who can engage her interests and show her the possibilities of the world. Throughout Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, we see those key moments that make Amélie who she is through the eyes of a child. At first, Amélie believes herself to be a god, then she begins to understand who she is. In the beginning, Amélie is almost a playful, unreliable narrator, claiming her first words were “vacuum cleaner,” and that when she started talking, she used complete sentences. It’s silly, but also a playful example of how memories distort the truth — especially when we remember our childhood.
But at the film progresses and Amélie comes out of her shell, Little Amélie finds a tender beauty to this story. We’re watching these moments from Amélie’s childhood, as she’s just forming who she becomes in her life, that will stick with her forever. There are moments of tremendous joy, as when Nishio-san takes Amélie to the festival of the dead, where they light paper lanterns together, or moments when she first feels seen in this new world. But there are also powerful moments of pain, like Amélie’s realization that her grandmother has to end her visit to Japan and return to Belgium, the loss of loved ones, or the ire their landlord, Kashima-san (Yumi Fujimori) still feels towards the Belgian people in the late 1960s due to the events of World War II.
‘Little Amélie’ Is a Gorgeous Look at the Early Memories That Make Us Who We Become
Directed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han, who also co-wrote the film with Aude Py and Eddine Noël, tells Amélie’s story in a fragmented nature, as though we’re seeing bits and pieces that Amélie remembers from her early childhood. Even though these moments are explicitly specific to Amélie’s experiences, it’s easy to become emotionally connected to these memories, which will likely remind the viewer of their first experiences with pain, love, anger, and the general confusion of being a kid.
This is especially most lovely when it focuses on the relationship between Amélie and Nishio-san. The housekeeper almost has to prove to Amélie that she’s worth her time, and once this happens, their bond is nearly unbreakable. In a strange way, Amélie’s early years rarely center on her parents, and her older brother is primarily known as a bully, whom Amélie compares to an idiotic carp. But when Amélie and Nishio-san are together, they find a bond that they both need.
For Amélie, it’s someone who gets her and is willing to embrace her idiosyncrasies. They spend each day together and they are almost inseparable, to the point that Kashima-san believes their friendship is becoming a problem. While it’s understandable that Amélie would latch onto someone like this, the friendship seems just as important to Nishio-san, who lost her husband, and there’s a melancholy that we can feel from the character in her quieter moments. In one particularly stunning moment, Amélie’s parents ask Nishio-san to get the sleeping Amélie out of the car. But before she does, Nishio-san gazes at this sweet girl who is becoming a fully-formed person, a few seconds that show not only how much Amélie means to her, but that this is a deep love that goes both ways.
‘Little Amélie’ Is the Type of Smaller Animated Film We Need More Of
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is aided in telling its story with a gorgeous yet simple animation style that truly feels like we’re seeing the world from a child’s eyes for the first time. It’s almost akin to last year’s Flow in how the animation pops with a style that is both minimal yet stunning to witness. It’s just the right look for a film like this: not too intricate, but almost seeming like a kid’s stories told through their watercolors — albeit some pretty advanced watercolors.
This is an example of the type of smaller animated film that deserves more attention in an animated landscape that is overwhelmed by major studios. Thankfully, Little Amélie will be distributed by GKIDS, a fantastic champion of these types of films, which has led to Academy Award nominations for movies like Wolfwalkers, My Life as a Zucchini, Ernest & Celestine, and plenty of others. It’s entirely possible that through GKIDS, Little Amélie could be a potential Oscar nominee, but it’s also a deserving film amongst the great work the company has done for the appreciation of smaller animated films.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is, without a doubt, one of the best and most touching animated films to come out this year, a remarkable example of what this style of storytelling can do. Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han bring Amélie Nothomb’s stories to life in striking fashion, and finds a way to capture those small, barely remembered moments that become so essential to the people we will become.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain had its North American premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
An example of the type of stunning smaller animated films we need more of in the world.
- Release Date
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June 25, 2025
- Runtime
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75 minutes
- Director
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Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Maïlys Vallade
- Writers
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Aude Py, Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Eddine Noel, Maïlys Vallade, Amélie Nothomb
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Loïse Charpentier
Amelie
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Victoria Grobois
Nishio-San
- Little Amélie beautifully captures the moments early in our life that makes us who we become.
- The bond between Amélie and Nishio-san is incredibly beautiful.
- The animation style is unique and matches a child’s perspective.
