FANTASIA25 REVIEW: Maya, donne-moi un titre [Maya, Give Me a Title] [2024]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 61 minutes
Release Date: October 2nd, 2024 (France)
Studio: The Jokers
Director(s): Michel Gondry
Writer(s): Michel Gondry

No, we’re in one of Daddy’s movies. Everything is made of paper. Look!

With an ocean (plus a continent) between them, Michel Gondry finds a way to stay engaged with his young daughter Maya via animation. He’s in Los Angeles. She’s in France. And he finally bought a cellphone. So, he asks her to make up the title to an unwritten story where she is the star and then brings it to life via paper, vellum, and markers. He eventually levels up to a camera/computer rig that allows for full stop-motion devoid of his hand visibly manipulating the pieces and these surreally absurd situations become entertainment for the entire family.

Now, with the hour-long compilation Maya, Give Me a Title, Gondry lets the world enjoy this imaginative exercise too. From Maya roaming the streets during an earthquake to discover its unlikely epicenter to Maya impersonating a police office to arrest cat thieves before being accosted by a giant robot herself, the scenarios become wilder with every seemingly innocuous pitch. Who else but Gondry would take the prompt “Maya takes a bath” and add a shrinking concoction that leads her on an adventure through the drain system?

We receive a handful of examples stitched together by short vignettes of the real Maya furnishing a room with souvenirs from each chapter. The medium itself becomes a character for fourth wall breaking escapes (keep your scissors handy), Gondry interjects (via Pierre Niney’s voice) to alter narrative course mid-thought by pushing rewind, and Maya’s mother Miriam and grandparents Pampa and Boum Boum make appearances as saviors, accomplices, and/or innocent bystanders added at the eleventh hour. At one point Maya even tries to stop the game before realizing how much she’d miss it.

As a fan of Gondry’s work (especially the early music videos and commercials this format most closely resembles), the film proves a wonderful lark. As a family project it was surely a delight to work on and the obvious love that went into it should mean the experience will put a smile on the faces of kids and parents alike. But it is just a collection of individual shorts—skits brimming with heart and humor that tend to bleed into one another once you realize the over-arching gag of the aesthetic is pretty much all it has going for it to non-Gondry family members.

Give me a chapter skip and I’d be more than happy to watch one every now and then when in need of a pick-me-up. I’d gladly put together a YouTube playlist to come back to on my own terms. Being forced to watch it all as a single cohesive whole again would be asking a lot, though. That said, I don’t speak French, so the prospect of reading its rapid-fire narration is probably the main detractor. Eye strain was a major problem and demanded I pause after every two or three episodes before reclaiming the enthusiasm necessary to keep going.