Movie Review

Kaena: The Prophecy (2004)

EW's GRADE
C

Details Release Date: Jun 25, 2004; Rated: PG-13; Length: 91 Minutes; Genres: Action/Adventure, Animation, Kids & Family; With: Kirsten Dunst, Richard Harris and Anjelica Huston

 GOT GAME? \'\'Kaena,\'\' developed initially for interactive play, is out of its depth as a big-screen feature film Kaena: The Prophecy
GOT GAME? ''Kaena,'' developed initially for interactive play, is out of its depth as a big-screen feature film

Kaena, the teenage ''chosen one'' of Kaena: The Prophecy, France's first feature-length computer-animated movie, has Barbarella's bikini bottoms, Lara Croft's bod, Pippi Longstocking's pigtails, and roughly one iota of the on-screen appeal of the lazy-eyed granny from ''The Triplets of Belleville,'' France's last 'toon breakthrough. Originally conceived as a videogame, ''Kaena'' is now, instead, a creamy-colored yet derivative sci-fi fantasy with a few rip-offs so blatant (''The Empire Strikes Back,'' ''Alien,'' etc.) that even kiddie fans not yet mentally agile enough to make sense of the loopy plot could pick them out.

That loopy plot in brief: Kaena (rhymes with hyena, and voiced by Kirsten Dunst) joins forces with an alien named Opaz (the late Richard Harris) to lead her humble villagers, currently indentured to tree-sap-sucking gods, to a promised-land sort of place. And this ultimate destination is, sorry, no ''Belleville.''

Originally posted Jun 30, 2004 Published in issue #773 Jul 09, 2004 Order article reprints
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