The Little Prince
Netflix | Release Date: August 5, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandMar 9, 2017
The Little Prince is heartbreaking, beautiful and irresistible. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle SmithAug 4, 2016
Like a Pixar movie shorn of the cutesy and manipulative aspects that marred “Inside Out,” the animated remake of The Little Prince, hitting theaters and Netflix, is as fragile and beautiful as the beloved rose guarded by the wee fellow of the title. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerMar 10, 2016
The audience is invited to celebrate the purified wonder of youth and the dazzle of life’s invisible indispensables. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 4, 2016
At its inventive best—like the creation of a little cloth fox who never speaks but steals almost every scene he’s in—it does capture the odd, tender wonder of his world. Read full review
83
HitfixGregory EllwoodJun 4, 2015
There is a faith that the story and characters will keep the audience engaged, even if there isn’t a bright and shiny thing to distract them in a every single scene. Read full review
83
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMay 22, 2015
The book is so counter to our contemporary narrative demands that liberties would need to be taken for a movie version, and for the most part Osborne takes the right liberties, ending up with an extremely beautiful, very charming, thematically rich take that’s sure to be one of the better animated movies this year. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 4, 2016
The voice casting and the visual representations of the characters the boy encounters on his journeys are superb. Read full review
80
VarietyScott FoundasMay 22, 2015
A respectful, lovingly reimagined take on Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic 1943 tale, which adds all manner of narrative bells and whistles to the author’s slender, lyrical story of friendship between a pilot and a mysterious extraterrestrial voyager, but stays true to its timeless depiction of childhood wonderment at odds with grown-up disillusionment. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 4, 2016
We’ve yet to get a masterpiece-level film adaptation of the classic novella “The Little Prince,” but if and until that day comes, this will do just nicely, thank you very much. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoAug 4, 2016
It is a cinematic crime that the abrasive garbage that is “The Angry Birds Movie” and “Ice Age: Collision Course” get national releases while most people don’t even know The Little Prince is coming to win their hearts this weekend. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriAug 4, 2016
There’s a lot of charm, thought, and feeling in this film version. It expands on the original without dishonoring it. Read full review
70
TheWrapClaudia PuigAug 4, 2016
The novella’s tale of the power of love is essentially a graceful story within that larger, clunkier contemporary story, beautifully rendered in stop motion. It’s enchanting, painterly and timeless, befitting the iconic French classic, with a style that feels both fresh and appropriately reverential. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 4, 2016
It’s a paradox, then, as well as a pity, that the film loses its way at precisely the point when the new story starts to merge with the old one, and the Little Girl meets a character called Mr. Prince. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 22, 2015
A paean to the importance of retaining one’s childlike enthusiasm, the animated The Little Prince is itself a charmingly innocent film, lacking some of the storytelling and design sophistication of its Pixar and Dreamworks competitors but nonetheless delivering a sweet, likeable tale. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 5, 2016
The computer-animated portions that function as a real-world framing device are more tedious than fanciful. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 4, 2016
The Little Prince is probably too opaque for children, and it’s definitely too strained for adults, but it’s still refreshing to see a movie that flies with the untamed, sometimes illogical creative impulses of its target audiences. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Aug 3, 2016
Better, then, to think of this handsome, inoffensive Little Prince less as an adaptation than as a tribute — one that makes the relationship between the book and those who love it a central focus. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 5, 2016
A stunning blend of styles, from hand-drawn sketches to computer-assisted visuals with flashbacks made in gorgeous, textured stop-motion animation with models and tactile sets, it does justice to the book while updating its messages for contemporary audiences. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMar 15, 2016
As preachy and repetitive as The Little Prince can be, it offers enough moments of poetry to keep it flirting with greatness, or at least goodness. Read full review
60
The GuardianAndrew PulverMay 22, 2015
This is a very good-looking film that represents a brave attempt to do justice to a very popular book; it manages it, just. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinAug 4, 2016
At heart, the film's biggest flaw is that it doesn't seem to have any faith in its audience's emotional intelligence. It effectively neuters all the original story's elusive, poetic, melancholy qualities by spelling things out in capital letters. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCharles SolomonAug 4, 2016
Although Mark Osborne’s new CG/stop-motion feature succeeds in bringing the essence of Saint-Exupéry to life in the lovely stop-motion sequences, there are only a few of these delightful moments in an otherwise muddled movie that feels like three films ineptly grafted together. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 22, 2015
Osborne, who initially got his kicks with Kung Fu Panda, doesn't trust his source material and the film becomes about collecting the pages of the story and the effect the story might have on the people who hear it, rather than the telling of the story itself. Read full review
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