There’s something different about Amélie. You see, she’s actually God. No matter that she’s barely three years old and has spent the majority of her life in a near-vegetative state. She has the power to bend reality and the world around her. Take, for instance, the moment when she turns three and finally snaps out of her “plant-like” silence: An earthquake shakes the entire Japanese house that she and her family live in, and suddenly Amélie (voiced by Loïse Charpentier) begins to cry. It’s as if the life bubbling underneath the surface of her stoic exterior forced its way out with such explosive force that it shook the whole world. And it certainly shakes her parents’ world. Because once Amélie starts crying, she doesn’t stop. She bawls and throws tantrums, enraged that she, a sophisticated and mature god, is bound to a body that cannot speak or move how she wants it to.
Amélie’s reign of terror is so destructive that her exhausted parents take the suggestion of their stern landlady, Kashima-san, to hire help. And soon, the gentle Nishio-san (voiced by Victoria Grosbois) arrives to help clean the house and cook for the family of Belgian expats living in Japan. But nothing really helps the situation with Amélie until her grandmother Claude (Cathy Cerdà) comes to visit, bearing something truly amazing: white chocolate. As soon as she gives a weeping Amélie the chocolate, Amélie’s eyes suddenly open wide and start to sparkle. This is it! The answer to life is white chocolate. Immediately, Amélie is calm, even pleasant. And she also, soon, can speak. It’s a series of apparent miracles that seem to unfold through the course of Little Amélie Or The Character Of Rain, itself a miraculous little animated film about the wonders of discovering life.
