As we know, stop-motion masters often take a while to work on their masterpieces. Both Henry Selick and Adam Elliot released acclaimed stop-motion films in 2009 yet it took them until recently to deliver another project. Claude Barras is no different – his debut My Life As A Courgette (replaced with Zucchini in some territories) attracted a lot of attention upon its release in 2016. A certain twelve-year old fan even did a review of it on this very site when it was released in the UK the following year, so if you fancy a little bit of nostalgia/cringe you can take a look at that. The film has continued to be praised since its release as one of the best stop-motion films in recent years and, while it’s far too early to see if Savages will get the same reputation, it does a great job at showing the versatility of Barras and the stories he wants to tell through the medium of stop-motion.
Firstly, let’s get the obvious out of the way, as if you need to be told: this looks bloody beautiful. Barras carved his own distinct style with the animation on My Life As A Courgette and it continues here. I love the rich and bright colours, the forest is a beautifully detailed environment, and I love how the expressive character animation from Courgette has carried over to this. You understand everything that the characters are feeling just from little things like eye and mouth inflections, really well-observed details that go a long way.
Savages’s story isn’t one we haven’t heard before. The idea of the lives of indigenous people and creatures being threatened by evil corporations who want to destroy their land has been explored in films like Ferngully, Pocahontas, and the big one, Avatar (proof that that franchise does not have a single original idea in its head).
Savages wisely scales back the size of this idea and focuses on a small but well-rounded group of characters. Much like My Life As A Courgette has Icare struggling to fit in, Savages focuses on a young girl called Kéria who obviously isn’t as happy as she lets on. She is seen as an outsider by her friends at school, further complicated when her indigenous cousin arrives to live with her and her father – and her father works on a palm oil plantation, so you can imagine there’s some tension there. The first act is great at establishing all this, and it’s effortless worldbuilding. We understand who all these characters are, where they stand, and we also immediately come to like and empathise with Kéria.
Stop-motion over Avatar any day of the week.
The emotional anchor throughout the film comes mostly from the bond between Kéria and Oshi, an orangutan that she and her father rescue when its parents are killed. If stop-motion like this wasn’t so criminally underrated I bet there’d be thousands of plushies of this thing on the market by now, but that’s besides the point. While it can be seen as a plot device to get Kéria into the forest, Barras works hard to show that her and this creature have a genuine connection, and despite the shifts in focus as the film progresses, Oshi never stops being important.
Savages wears its environmentalism very much on its sleeve. If the dialogue in the first two acts wasn’t to the point enough for you, then the third act basically screams it in your face. And I mean that in a good way – Savages is blunt about its messaging but it’s still smart about it, and it’s never preachy. The opening gets the film’s tone across pretty perfectly, and from there the film is a dark but engaging and wholesome story about reconnecting with your roots when they are threatened by malevolent outside forces.
With all that said though, I don’t think this reaches quite the same heights as My Life As A Courgette. That film was only 65 minutes long and yet it still felt like a complete emotional experience. By contrast, the 90 minutes given to Savages can sometimes lead to inconsistent pacing. I did feel my attention waning a little bit in the middle, as the story itself can get a little too bogged down in the lives of the indigenous Penan tribe. Likewise, some aspects of the conclusion feel a bit rushed – I was quite surprised when the film ended as it felt like we still had another scene to go. I will say though that the shot Barras chooses to end on is really striking, and works perfectly for the film’s focus on its indigenous community and the anti-deforestation message.
Perhaps deliberately, Savages also doesn’t feel as hard-hitting as My Life As A Courgette. Ironically given the title, it adopts a more light and familiar narrative: an adventure through new environments, that culminates in self-discovery for our main character. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this, and Savages certainly does it well – there were a few children in my screening who seemed invested which, let’s face it, is especially impressive for a film with subtitles, even if it is an animation. But those who admired just how powerful My Life As A Courgette was might feel a little disappointed at the tone that Savages goes for, as it can’t cut quite as deep as you’d perhaps want for this subject matter.
Still, not everything needs to cut deep. Indeed, since Memoir of A Snail earlier on this year cut incredibly deep for me, it was nice to see a stop-motion film in 2025 that didn’t squeeze my heart like a sponge. Savages certainly did leave its impression on me, though. Because of the beautiful animation and the inviting nature, it’s got great rewatchability potential, and I think those qualities make it a really good starting point for kids getting into stranger and less mainstream animation. It’s a really charming and topically-minded bit of animation and, even though it doesn’t quite hit the heights of My Life As A Courgette, I wasn’t even really asking it to.
Besides, if you want to see a film in 2025 where a tribal community protects their land from a massive corporation, this is bound to be a better cinematic experience than the third instalment in James Cameron’s nauseatingly bloated franchise. Stop-motion over Avatar any day of the week.
SAVAGES PREVIOUSLY PLAYED IN UK CINEMAS, CHECK THE IMAGE BELOW TO FIND OUT WHEN ITS AVAILABLE ON VOD
