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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 26 auguSt 2017
Film Review: Animated ‘LEAP!’ sets a low barre

By LINDSEY BAHR when work started on the
AP Film Writer Eiffel Tower in 1887, the
An animated “Flashdance” Statue of Liberty was al-
meets “Cinderella,” ‘’LEAP ready perched in the New
!” isn’t so much bad as it York Harbor). But the char-
is bewildering. The feature acters talk like it’s present
about an orphan girl who day (or in some cases, like
dreams of dancing profes- it’s 25 years ago, throw-
sionally is set very vaguely ing out zingers like “it’s
in the 1880s, in Brittany and Hammer time!”) and dress
Paris, and contains nods like they’re in a Barbie-
to that general time — steampunk production of
like an under-construction “Fame.” One aspiring bal-
Statue of Liberty and Eiffel lerina wears a pink sweat-
Tower. (Never mind that band and leg warmers.
This image released by The Weinstein Company shows a scene from, “Leap!”
Associated Press

Others dress like Dickensian tor (Nat Wolff) and heads let (which ballet? That’s un-
street urchins. And then off to Paris to find a dance clear, since “The Nutcrack-
there’s all the anachronis- school. After nearly getting er” was first performed in
tic pop music. arrested for trespassing in 1982 and the only other
This would all be more tol- the Palais Garnier, Felicie ballet referenced, “Swan
erable were the dialogue ends up assisting a disabled Lake,” has no young char-
better or the story a little maid, Odette (played by acter named Clara.)
smoother, but, alas, that pop star Carly Rae Jepsen), There’s also an odd subplot
seems to have been the who cleans both the opera involving a love triangle
last thing on anyone’s mind house and the large home which has both Victor and
after executing the pretty of a very wealthy family a blonde Russian dancer
computer animation that (the wicked mother Regine vying for Felicie’s affec-
very beautifully approxi- is voiced by Kate McKinnon tions. “His cheekbones!”
mates both the light-as- and the bratty daughter squeals Felicie at one point.
a-feather dancing and Camille is played by Mad- She’s 11. It’s a bit much.
a Paris fit for a storybook. die Ziegler) and there de- “LEAP!” is a fine-enough
Thus we’re left with a vil- cides to partake in some background movie and
lain who throws barbs like, light identity theft. one young kids might very
“Tired is for losers!” and a Yes, Felicie steals Camille’s well take to, but it’s just
heroine who we’re led to letter of acceptance to the mystifying how lazily the
believe has such raw talent ballet school and pretends story components seem to
that she can in a matter of to be her to get in to the have been put together
days go from not knowing classes. All’s fair for dream- and how shamelessly it
what first position is to be- ers, I guess? The real rub, panders to some impre-
ing in serious contention for however, is that Camille is cise notion of what modern
a leading role in a Paris Op- actually a devoted student children want (Pop music!
era Ballet production. And of ballet, whereas while Slang! Love triangles?).
then there are the morally Felicie can’t stop talking For this former kid, the most
questionable choices the about her dream to dance, enchanting films to watch
lead makes to get ahead. she doesn’t know the slight- were those that commit-
The heroine is a very Emma est thing about ballet. But ted to the period setting,
Stone-like wide-eyed, one training montage with like Alfonso Cuaron’s “A Lit-
red-headed 11-year-old Odette solves that and tle Princess,” or Agnieszka
named Felicie (voiced by suddenly Felicie is one of Holland’s “The Secret Gar-
Elle Fanning) who escapes the top students in the class den,” that transported you
her orphanage with the and very well could score to a world so unlike your
help of a doting friend, Vic- the part of Clara in the bal- own.q
Fox to air probe into ‘Who Shot

Biggie & Tupac?’ next month

NEW YORK (AP) — The Fox remains among the great- The program will be an-
network next month will air est crime mysteries in pop- chored by actor-rapper
an investigation into the culture history. Ice-T and journalist-doc-
shooting deaths of rap su- Shakur was fatally shot in umentarian Soledad
perstars Tupac Shakur and a drive-by shooting in Las O’Brien. It will feature inter-
Biggie Smalls. Vegas in September 1996. views with former private in-
The two-hour special, “Who Smalls was killed in a drive- vestigators, police officers,
Shot Biggie & Tupac?,” will by shooting in Los Angeles informants and hip-hop in-
dig into the entangled mur- in March 1997. Two de- siders. Airdate is Sept. 24.q
ders of these legendary cades later, both crimes
hip-hop adversaries, which remain unsolved.