The Summit Of The Gods (2021) Dir: Patrick Imbert
- Ridley Coote
- 17 hours ago
- 2 min read
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Also known as 'Le Sommet Des Dieux', this French Netflix original animated adventure, directed by Patrick Imbert, and based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Jiro Taniguchi, has been sat on my watchlist, tempting me, for quite some time now. It has had an extremely good critical reception since it debuted at the iconic Cannes Film Festival, and is one of a number of highly acclaimed modern animated films that I have wanted to get around to watching.
The film's animation was absolutely stunning, at times. I adored how smooth the climbing sequences looked, and the scenery was magnificent. These visuals came together perfectly with the beautiful and highly emotive soundtrack, which captured the search for adventure and freedom, as well as the heartbreak and grief that comes with high-risk sport. I was highly enamoured by it all. Even the colours looked wonderful, including the shades of greys, browns and whites of the more mountainous environments.
The narrative had two very interesting arcs that intertwined into one fascinating trek, which combined so much emotion, even with relatively few words. Time and time again I am stunned by how impactful animation can be. It really is an incredible art form and film medium. The emotions of the piece hit me very hard towards the end - it was all told so beautifully. It very nearly brought me to tears during the final ten minutes - it was all very bitter-sweet.
I watched this with the English dubbed audio, which featured a very solid cast of voice actors, headlined by Darren Barnet, whose broody leading performance was the perfect juxtaposition to the other characters in the film. Rich Ting also gave a goof vocal performance, but in a fat more animated manner, which, as alluded to above, played off of Barnet's darker performance very nicely. There were a number of other very commendable voice acting performances from those in supporting roles, with the most noteworthy being Chris Naoki, Ray Yamamoto, Brent Yoshida, and Keiko Agena.
Overall, I was blown away by this film, at times. Not only was the animation extremely good, but the emotional core of the story was terrifically well-told. I found myself far more invested than I ever expected to be, and the allure of the mountains felt oh-so-real. It felt like a wonderful tribute to the athletes and explorers who have risked their lives for the sake of conquering some of planet Earth's toughest terrains. I am so glad that I finally watched it.
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