Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
After his mother’s death, Zucchini is befriended by a kind police officer, Raymond, who accompanies him to his new foster home filled with other orphans his age. There, with the help of his newfound friends, Zucchini eventually learns to trust and love as he searches for a new family of his own.
My Life as a Zucchini is a remarkably tender and visually distinctive stop-motion gem. Its cinematography earns a 4 for the expressive, melancholic visual style — the oversized eyes, muted yet warm color palette, and tactile puppet work give it a singular aesthetic that carries enormous emotional weight for such a short runtime. Novelty is equally high: despite working within the orphan-story tradition, the film's unflinching honesty about childhood trauma, its refusal to sentimentalize pain, and its specific French-Swiss stop-motion craft make it genuinely one-of-a-kind. The plot is solid and emotionally coherent but relatively simple, following a well-worn emotional arc without major structural surprises — above average but not exceptional. The voice performances are well-suited and naturalistic for the format, though the medium limits the range. The ending is warm and satisfying but leans toward conventional hopefulness, stopping short of the daring complexity the rest of the film sometimes promises.