The film feels like a more faithful version of the Grimm Brothers than we usually get from the edge-sanding Disney adaptations, but it ultimately cares more about splashing around in a pool of hippy-dippy aloofness than developing strong characters.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 29, 2019

I am certainly grateful for artists like Sébastien Laudenbach for reminding me that animation is still art and it can still be made by one man painting a story.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 6, 2019

Dark and stunningly beautiful.

| Mar 7, 2018

There's an old fashioned, storybook quality to this that suits the nature of the tale. It's elegantly realised and has plenty of appeal for adults as well as its target audience.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 27, 2017

As we continue to see animation progress and become more and more realistic, the French animated film The Girl Without Hands or La Jeune Fille sans mains is a reminder that the medium can be just as compelling with simple and evocative strokes

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 27, 2017

The distinctive animation is vibrantly colored, with hand-drawn characters and set pieces that are more sketch-like silhouettes than intricately detailed landscapes and people.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 27, 2017

With dialogue and characterization at a minimum, the real draw of "The Girl Without Hands" is the visuals. The animation looks as if Laudenbach's personal sketchbook has erupted into life on the screen, with impressionistic flourishes.

| Dec 27, 2017

The deceptively simple illustrations are evocative and painterly.

| Dec 18, 2017

The kind of thing that cinema is uniquely capable of, and animation is uniquely capable of within cinema.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 14, 2017

Putting the grim back in Grimm Brothers, this deceptively simple animated effort turns a lesser-known fairy tale into an edgy meditation on gendered views of nature and society.

| Aug 24, 2017

Writer-director (and co-editor) Sbastien Laudenbach strives and largely succeeds in his effort to produce a finished animated film with the vivacity and evocative power of a rough sketchbook.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 11, 2017

This striking animated adaption of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale makes a lean and dark story feel sweeping and warm.

| Aug 10, 2017

Girl is a welcome reminder that animation doesn't have to be synonymous with realistically rendered CG, but can be a means of artistic expression as uniquely personal as a signature.

| Aug 2, 2017

A formally daring convention-defier that, in ways both bold and subtle, puts most of its genre brethren to shame.

| Jul 28, 2017

Laudenbach's style is haunting. Some of his artwork stops you in your tracks. What he does best is create a palpable sense of dread without pushing, without tilting into melodrama.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 21, 2017

Visually innovative fairytale adaptation should appeal to fans of experimental animation.

| Jul 21, 2017

Although this film's style is soft and colorful, it does not rub out the emotional sharpness of a story dealing with betrayal, suicide and death.

| Jul 20, 2017

The film creates a deeply rooted sense of realism that contrasts the austere, surreal illustrations.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 20, 2017

While the source material may have originally been aimed at younger audiences, Laudenbach's elegant execution has a sophistication which is more likely to recommend it to older ones.

| Jul 17, 2017

A Brothers Grimm tale is given a rather grim if beautifully rendered makeover in The Girl Without Hands (La Jeune fille sans mains), which marks the feature debut of French animation director Sebastien Laudenbach.

| Jul 17, 2017