This post is all drabble and bad word language.
Leap! / Ballerina - L'Atelier Animation 2016
*If you haven't seen Leap!/Ballerina, this post will make absolutely no sense to you.
So from the beginning, you pick up what they're laying down in this movie - Mr. Ballet Champion of the World Merante knows Odette. You know our physically incapacitated Odette was a world-class ballerina, even though she now cleans floors for a living.
Merante hates Felicie. Odette trains Felicie, and Felicie wins the approval and favor of Merante.
We've seen this trope enough to identify it and run with it, hanging up the ol' disbelief on the coat rack when we walk in. It's a children's movie after all, tropes belong here. The predictability does not bother me.
Yet, the predictability of the storyline makes me zero in on other things, like Merante and Odette, far away from the main characters.
Merante is full of scorn (we the audience realize this is because he is a bitter person, not genuinely hateful). When he tells Felicie that Odette was "the greatest dancer of her time," there is a hint of emotion to him.
So what is this emotion? Empathy for Odette? The crush of watching a rising star snuffed out? A nostalgia for a time long gone?
There seems to be a sense of respect (the dude knows ballet, and if she was the best, then he has to respect that, right?)
Odette is a different kind of bitter.
We see that respect consistently in their interactions, but there's also… something there. Odette seems to understand his inner workings and isn't afraid to stand up to him a bit, but does not want to outright cross him.
Head cannon Idea: She was his student, and when she could no longer dance she went on a months-long bender, destroying her life and blowing all of her money and now is a lowly floor cleaner. He respects who she was, but not what she did or who she is? Is that the scath of disappointment in his eyes?
When Merante discovers Felicie's deception, he's aware that Odette has been training her. Through one (or some combination) of the ideas that Felicie is genuinely talented, that he respects Odette enough to give Felicie a chance because Odette thinks she's good enough, or the sheer desire to buck the entrenched ballet system he's had to struggle through (and is now a part of). He makes concessions for Felicie to give her every opportunity in his power.
Felicie gets her epic performance.
THEN WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS??
THE FUCK IS THIS??
Is this new?? We know these two characters have an extended history and know each other, SO WHAT IS THIS? Could Merante have had feelings for her this whole time, yet be able to watch her mop the floors beneath him? Did Odette have feelings for him in her younger years, but went with the "he's my boss/coach/better than me social class/never will like me" route?
The movie doesn't show us much development between these two. Instead, it sits on a pre-fabricated foundation that these two know each other, and their lives were somehow intertwined. But the way this thing unravels just leaves my head hurting at the ideas. If Merante swooned from the beginning, she wouldn't have been cleaning the floors. Like seriously. He's bitter, but he's not that bitter. Odette could have gone and asked a favor for Felicie if they'd had some kind of involved relationship from the past. WHAT CHANGED? I MISSED IT. I DIDN'T SEE IT.
And the fact that I'm still here pondering the movie's cues and trying to piece together the mechanics behind this one kiss makes me love this movie. This is fantastic storytelling for children that threw a bone to me as a parent, and I love it. Even if it's one of those bones I keep chewing and chewing and can't seem to destroy it.
And this is like one of the sweetest kisses ever. I bet Odette ain't cleaning floors any more.
TL;DR I can't figure out Odette/Merante and it bothers me.