Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds
A french film that I enjoy (honestly I should make a page for the rest of the films I like if only to point out there very funny common thread between most of them)
General Plot Synopsis
Juliette and her sister Carmen are transported to the Kingdom of Winds after finding an enchanted book. They are also transformed into cats. Juliette causes an accident that upsets the Kingdom's locals, leading to its ruler to give Juliette to the songstress Selma, while also sentencing Carmen to marry his son.
One day, the adventurous Juliette and her sister Carmen find an enchanted toy and get swept away into the Kingdom of Winds. They are transformed into cats and find themselves in a fantastical new world full of flying divas, technicolor dragons, and other mind-melting creations. When Juliette causes an accident that draws the ire of the local inhabitants, the Mayor gives Juliette to the beautiful songstress Selma and sentences Carmen to marry his son as punishment. The sisters must find a way to escape before the wedding bells ring, but the key to their journey home lies with Sirocco, the mysterious wizard feared for his ferocious storms.
A psychedelic fairy tale years in the making comes from the imagination of director Benoît Chieux. With captivating creatures and a vibrant Seussian world, Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds is a kaleidoscopic fantasy adventure bursting with charm and wonder.
Plot Summary (Spoilers abound)
The film starts off with a dramatic Narration about Sirocco the Magician, who is noted as being quite lonely because no one in the kingdom is willing to talk or play with him. The narrator continues to narrate as the scene plays out, Sirocco (called the Storm Lord) conjures some magical toys to keep himself company and to keep himself entertained. He quickly grows frustrated about it however, and banishes the toys, sending them flying up through and out of the eye of the Storm.
The narration cuts off just as Sirocco unleashes a powerful storm upon the lands.
This is because Agnes, the Narrator, has decided to take a quick break from Writing. The scene pulls back a bit as it's revealed that Agnes is an Author and the Narration is her writing a Story. It's quite apparent that she's a successful author and the books (dubbed Sirocco and the Kingdom of winds in English but perhaps just "The kingdom of Winds" in French) are well received.
Before she can take a break that she can appreciate, there is a knock on the door. A friend of hers is dropping her two children, Carmen and Juliette, off for the weekend. This catches Agnes off-guard, as she seems to have either not known it was for the whole weekend or that this was the weekend she was supposed to watch the kids, as this friend is taking her soccer team to the big competition and will be gone all weekend.
We're introduced to the responsible Carmen (aged Eight), and the rambunctious Juliette, who's just turned five and is rather impatiently demanding that they celebrate her birthday again (because Agnes was not at her actual birthday party I suspect). Agnes tells the girls that they'll get on that, but she's got to rest for thirty minutes. She then proceeds to take a nap and try to rest. Before the nap, she remarks to a picture of her and her sister about the bonds of sisterhood.
Meanwhile, Carmen and Juliette struggle to settle down for the rest, Juliette in particular quickly becoming bored and not falling for the "quiet game" trick that Carmen tries on her.
Eventually Carmen decides to go get some refreshments for the two, and Juliette decides to skim the Sirocco Books that Agnes has in her personal library and writing room.
She skims, and looks at the pictures (the pictures being of some of the characters we'll see later in the film), and then a rogue wind blows through, flipping the pages and revealing a little walking animation of one of the banished toys. It goes fast enough that the actual toy pops out and falls into the room.
This is enough to keep Juliette entertained, who immediately starts asking the toy questions.
The toy remarks that he certainly didn't mean to go here, and finds the house rather strange. He then sets off to return to the Kingdom of winds, by making a hopscotch. Juliette finds this curious, and the toy boasts that it can indeed travel by hopscotch. Carmen stumbles in on this and then the toy decides to leave, Juliette chasing after it, with an unwilling Carmen following (if only to not lose track of her younger sister).
The two then fall into the Kingdom of winds, turning into cats in the process.
Once they land after falling into the world, Juliette is ecstatic while Carmen quickly freaks out about being in a strange place and now being cat people.
The toy remarks that the new look better suits the two, but they ought to really head back home.
Juliette, however, wants to stay and explore since it's her birthday despite Carmen agreeing with the toy. After some whining, Carmen eventually caves and the two demand to be shown around, with the toy hesitantly agreeing so long as there's no "monkey business".
They poke around, the toy nervously glancing around as they wander the lands. Eventually after Juliette cracks a joke about the wind vanes, the toy nervously points out that the vanes are more so that they can avoid Sirocco. This understandably freaks out Carmen since it seems as if the eponymous wizard of the series is more of a driving antagonist in contrast to how the wizard of Oz books having the Wizard of Oz be a conman but ultimately on the side of good.
Eventually they make it to the town square where they watch as the Mayor (and his son) make an announcement. The Opera Singer Selma is in town, and in a bid to impress her (and possible win her heart), the Mayor plans to present Selma with a Gift. This gift is revealed to be a music box in the shape of Selma, that plays a haunting little melody. The whole scene is beautiful, but Juliette cannot stand to stay still long, trying to push through the crowd. This causes a commotion which ultimately leads to a big banner falling over, this breaks the magical toy as well as ultimately leading to the Music box being destroyed. As the dust proverbially settles, Juliette runs to hide behind Carmen, and the Mayor demands the two be caught.
One of the folks in the Crowd points out that a Storm is coming, so the three are caught and left in a jail cell, but judgement for the crimes is put off until tomorrow. Carmen tries to put the toy back together and while she does that successfully, that doesn't completely fix the toy. In the English dub, it starts talking non-sequitur nonsense (though in French I've yet to find a properly subtitled version that actually contains the text of what the toy is saying so I wouldn't know if this is a deliberate English dub change or not). It starts making a hopscotch to send the girls home, but it comes out all crooked and wonky. They have the toy go through it first, but the toy pops out on the other side much smaller, and this causes the pair to despair.
The night passes with a dramatic scene of Sirocco flying through the Storm.
Eventually, the night turns to day and the Mayor returns to do the sentencing for the two girls.
Firstly, Carmen is sentenced to marry the Mayor's son, as he's had a hard time dating and trying to find a wife. This enrages Carmen, but the mayor doesn't care because they both messed up a lot of things yesterday.
Secondly, the Mayor sentences Juliette to become the new gift for Selma, as he will give her to Selma to be her maid and pet to make up for how the original gift was broken. Carmen tries to fight it, but the mayor grabs Juliette and leaves. We end the scene there with Carmen crying out for Juliette.
It cuts to the Mayor and his entourage going to Selma's air ship, Juliette in a cage on his staff. Juliette's not happy about this, but occasionally stops growling at the Mayor to take in the sights as they and others go to the show. As they get seated, Juliette is still mad but the Mayor remarks that this is a special treat and that Juliette should really be enjoying this opportunity to be a gift.
Selma then comes out, and after a dramatic deep breath, starts her performance. This captures the attention of everyone in what is genuinely a pretty good scene. Even Sirocco watches from a distance before flying away. One thing that's emphasized here is that Selma has a particular necklace with a symbol on it, and we see this right after the show.
Later, after a small timeskip to show Selma relaxing in her room, the mayor pushes through and presents Juliette as a gift. Juliette growls, gets loose, and hides in the pillows. As the mayor attempts to grab her again and re-present little juliette, the girl goes full cat mode, growling and scratching while the Mayor desperately tries to sell this kitten to Selma in vain.
This gets Selma to laugh and then accepts the gift, having successfully clocked that it's kind of a whack / bad situation going on for Juliette. She promises Juliette that she'll let her go after "accepting" the gift. She makes a great show of accepting the gift but needing to rest after her performance.
This then goes to a Scene where Selma relaxes and Juliette grabs her slippers for her, shyly pushing them up from under a table.
Selma remarks that she can go home now, and Juliette explains the situation she's in, how she's in kind of a deep pickle of a situation since she got magicked here by a (now broken) magical toy and that she's gotta find her sister Carmen.
It then goes to a situation about how apparently Selma (a book character) knows about the Author Agnes, but it's revealed that she is in fact actually her sister. Or at least, after Agnes' sister died, that she's living here in the world of the story that Agnes is writing. Towards the end of things, after Selma manages to calm Juliette down from freaking out, she wonders about the magic toy, grabbing it and flipping it over. A symbol can be seen from the bottom, the same as on her Necklace. This surprises Selma, as Selma reveals (though unintentionally) that this is the symbol of Sirocco.
We cut to what looks Like Carmen back in the Jail sell. The door swings open and she goes to leave, seeing the back of Sirocco. She cautiously approaches before it suddenly turns to the Mayor, and Carmen suddenly being Juliette. The Mayor holds up a toy version of Carmen who tells Juliette that she's gotta wake up, and very shortly after Juliette wakes from her nightmare, though still a cat person.
The next day starts, and Selma and Juliette gear up to go grab Carmen and stop the wedding. Juliette remarks that this side of Selma wasn't ever in the books, with Selma stating that Agnes "may know some of the stories of the world, but there's a lot of stories that she doesn't know of". This is to say that Selma went on a lot of adventures before becoming an Opera Singer.
They fly off using a hang-glider like device and manage to catch up to the wedding party as they approach Wedding island. This leads to a scene of Conflict, as the Mayor doesn't want anything to stop the wedding, and the guards around their dragon-like rides shoot stick candy at the duo, which attracts the "greedy gobblers", another thing not apparently seen in the Sirocco Books.
Selma keeps going for Carmen while telling Juliette to grab a saltshaker out of her pack, as the gobblers only like sweet things and salt should get them away. This results in all but one gobbler giving up the chase right as the wedding party makes landfall, the mayor grabbing his son and Carmen and sprinting up to the wedding alter to force the wedding faster. The wedding officiant is very nervous about this actually since I get the impression it's usually supposed to be about true love and not forced marriages.
Carmen and Selma make a dive right at the alter and successfully grab carmen, with the mayor's son kissing the last gobbler that was chasing them right as the vows are done. This thwarts the Mayor's plan, and the three set off for destinations unknown.
On the way there, Juliette explains a bit to Carmen about how Selma is apparently the same Selma as Agnes' sister. Carmen asks a bit about Selma's past life, since neither of them really knew Selma well and I guess the adults don't talk about it much. Selma reveals that before she died in their world, that she was a Storm scientist who was fascinated with storms, and that implicitly a storm might have been what had killed her.
Eventually they get up to the very top, which is what Selma wanted to show them. At that altitude, there was a particular spot where the winds carried all the whispers of the world and they could be heard up there. The two girls hear Agnes and cry out for her, with Selma remarking that she's tried that and their calls won't carry back over to Agnes. Eventually they manage to clip what appears to be the very ceiling of the world, this causing them to have to come back down to land.
Once they land and set up camp, Selma explains her little plan to the two about what they're doing since as Carmen does note, they didn't go back to Selma's ship. Selma reveals that for the two to get home, they must ask Sirocco for help as the toy that got them here was made by him, as the symbol on the bottom shows. Juliette is super excited because it seems that Sirocco is her favorite character in the books, but Carmen points out that Sirocco is not the good guy of the books and keeps tormenting people with his storms. Selma points out that though Agnes is the author and has written a great many stories, she's never personally encountered Sirocco himself. Selma then reveals a story about a chance encounter she had with Sirocco, where the two had met and actually got on pretty well. Sirocco was surprisingly happy about encountering someone who wasn't super afraid of him, and remarked that as someone who seems to know everyone in the kingdom of winds, that he's never encountered her before. Selma reveals that she wasn't from the kingdom at all, and was "sent here" after loosing her life by her sister Agnes (a thinly veiled way of saying that she died and then was reborn in the world of the books), and Sirocco mistakes Agnes as being another Sorcerer (sorceress?) before deciding that should he ever encounter her, he should thank her for the opportunity for him and Selma to meet. As the two share a moment, he notices a storm encroaching as his heart races and after giving Selma the necklace so that she may never lose her breath again, sends her flying away to protect her from the storm.
The next day, the two head over to "the forbidden lands" where Sirocco resides, to try to beseech the sorcerer to help. The lands have no winds and the group are forced to land, loosing Juliette in the process as she winds up falling off from the erratic movements to try to dodge the trees. The group gets split up, Selma telling Carmen that they gotta find Sirocco and that he can help them look as well as send them back.
Meanwhile, Juliette starts looking for them but then eventually stumbles upon the wizard Sirocco instead.
Sirocco initially tries to go into a whole thing, but then gets immediately thrown off when Juliette mimics him.
Sirocco then asks her about how she knows so much about him and this gets the girl all flustered, remarking that she thinks that he's cool.
He's completely taken aback about someone for once thinking that he's cool, and then she starts asking him about all of his powers and stuff. Eventually the Sorcerer gets it out of Juliette that she came here with her sister carmen and Selma to look for him and his help. This gets his heart racing and then Juliette decides that now is the time to start booking it away from him.
Meanwhile, Selma and Carmen have found Sirocco's "castle" and have been trying to find a way inside before noticing that it doesn't actually have any entrances. They wonder about that before some sirens and noises go off, this spooking the two as big figures come out to try to trap the emerging creature that starts to bust it's way out of the castle. The two then realize that Sirocco was actually trying to keep whatever this is trapped inside, and Selma realizes that Sirocco wasn't maliciously sending storms all over the place, but rather that he was trying to "trap the storm to protect the kingdom", the strange creature being another source of storms and ones far stronger than initially thought. That the beast is tied to Sirocco and his heart being the reason why he keeps the beast a prisoner.
Sirocco eventually manages to settle his racing heart and then decides to grab Juliette and take them back to where he left the storm (the thing linked to his racing heart). As the two fly over, he manages to get a good hit on the storm, subduing it. Carmen and Selma were trapped in a building that gets thrown up by the storm and in all of this, the two wind up getting thrown around, A big pole hitting Selma and knocking her completely unconscious. Sirocco manages to help the two break their fall, but as he and Juliette come over, it becomes apparent that Selma was fatally wounded and dies right in front of the girls. The two girls beg Sirocco if they can help them Help Selma, and after some thought, he says he can do it.
He then does something interesting, coming apart at the seams and revealing that everying about him was part of a costume and that he didn't have an actual body, all of that coming apart and dropping.
Seen by us but not by the girls, we see the mask of his face fall through the floor and approach the sinking spirit of Selma, giving it the strength to return. And she wakes up and is no longer dead
Sirocco, on the other hand, doesn't seem to come back, and as the storm picks up again, it sends his clothing flying off and away.
The three then realize that now they gotta stop the storm and that Sirocco won't be able to help them.
Juliette comes up with an idea, to use the hopscotch toy to shrink it down.
Juliette and the toy race off to make a big hopscotch and once it's done, Selma uses her necklace to try to take a deep breath to drag the Storm beast over the edge of the hopscotch. This works, and what comes out is such a small little thing that the storm dissipates completely.
The group returns back to Selma's ship, Carmen remarking that with Sirocco gone, how will they get back home now, and Selma responding that she's got an idea now how to do that.
What seems to be either later that day or the next day, Selma takes her ship all the way to the ceiling of the world, and using her necklace, makes a circle in the top, sending the two girls off tearfully.
The girls then wake up and see that Agnes has found them. They're both very sorry at first and Juliette spills the beans that they met Selma and went on an adventure. Agnes finds this funny and remarks that they must have had a fun thirty minutes, and the girls find out that they were teleported back very shortly after they initially left in their world. The two almost think that it was just a dream.
But after Agnes Leaves they notice that the magical toy is still with them.
They hide away the toy and then decide to celebrate Juliette's birthday a second time. Juliette asks if she can get more than one wish, and Agnes says it's her birthday party. So she wishes for two things. Firstly, that They would be able to meet Selma again someday. Secondly, that Sirocco would come back.
A gust of wind blows through the house, and an almost unseen Sirocco comes through and blows out the candles just as Juliette Blows out the candles.
The toy makes one more remark about that, and the story comes to a close.