Generation Parkway presents: Zarafa

2012, 78 minutes
France

Language: English Dubbed Version

Director: Rémi Besançon and Jean-Christophe Lie

Inspired by the true story of the rst giraffe to visit France, Zarafa is a sumptuously animated and stirring adventure, and a throwback to a bygone era of hand-drawn animation and epic storytelling set among sweeping CinemaScope vistas of parched desert, wind-swept mountains and open skies.

 

 

Under the cover of darkness a small boy, Maki, loosens the shackles that bind him and escapes into the desert night. Pursued by slavers across the moon- lit savannah, Maki meets Zarafa, a baby giraffe – and an orphan, just like him – as well as the nomad Hassan, Prince of the Desert. Hassan takes them to Alexandria for an audience with the Pasha of Egypt, who orders him to deliver the exotic animal as a gift to King Charles of France. And so Maki, Zarafa and Hassan take off in a hot-air balloon to cross the Mediterranean, setting off an adventure across Northern Africa, the bustling port of Marseilles, and over the snow-capped peaks of the Alps, arriving at last in Paris. But all the while, Maki is determined to nd a way to return Zarafa to her rightful home.

 

 

“Pro-giraffe and antislavery!” ~ Nicolas Rapold, NY Times

 

 

“ A colorfully compelling kids flick with darker historical overtones.” ~ Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter

 

Many thanks to Port Discovery Children’s Museum for their support of the Generation Parkway series!

Have a kid that’s crazy about dinosaurs? Visit the new Dinosaurs: Land of Ice and Fire Exhibit this summer, now through September 9!