Movie Review : Poor Dubbing Hurts Delightful ‘Little Indian, Big City’

It’s easy to understand why “Little Indian, Big City” became one of France’s most popular movies ever--and why Walt Disney Pictures plans a remake starring Tim Allen. Although we often get to see foreign films in their original-language versions prior to the release of their Hollywood remakes, Disney decided to go for an English-dubbed version of “Little Indian” to reach youthful audiences.

Even though the highly colloquial American-style dialogue in “Little Indian” is quite a few cuts above the usual colorless English of dubbed films, there’s still that awful, slightly disembodied, out-of-sync quality that has the effect of turning off fans of French films who are familiar with the stars and their voices and limiting the movie’s appeal to children.

Thierry Lhermitte, who stars (and co-produces), has been familiar to American audiences ever since 1984’s “My New Partner,” when he was hilariously teamed as a by-the-book rookie cop with Philippe Noiret’s cut-the-corners veteran. Trim and good-looking rather than classically handsome, Lhermitte probably holds the record for starring in films remade by Hollywood. He’s a gifted comedian offering wide identification for audiences and is delightful as Stephan, a workaholic Parisian wheeler-dealer who heads for a Venezuelan rain forest to finalize a divorce from the wife (Miou-Miou, another veteran of French cinema) he hasn’t seen in 13 years. (It’s when he installed a fifth phone line at home, making her decisively feel she was more secretary than wife, that she took off for the South American wilderness.)

What he didn’t know was that when she left him his wife was pregnant and he has a 12-year-old son, Mimi-Siku (Ludwig Briand), who has been raised as a native. Stephan casually promises Mimi-Siku that he can visit him in Paris after he grows up. He doesn’t realize that, according to an impending native ceremony, roughly equivalent to a bar mitzvah, the boy becomes considered an adult. A promise is a promise, so Mimi-Siku, in breechcloth and face-paint, a whiz at a poisoned blow-dart and with a tarantula as a pet, is all set to take on Paris--and turn Stephan into a real father in the process.

Director Herve Palud and a raft of writers, including Lhermitte, take this premise and play it for all it’s worth, and it’s not hard to imagine Allen having a field day in Lhermitte’s role. Disney, however, faces a challenge in equaling the irresistible and formidably assured Briand. Lhermitte, Briand and Patrick Timsit as Lhermitte’s trouble-prone pal and business associate fare best in the dubbing process. Unfortunately, the beautiful and talented Arielle Dombasle, so ideally cast as Stephan’s airhead new age fiancee, suffers badly in the dubbing. (Too bad Dombasle, star of Eric Rohmer’s “Pauline at the Beach,” who is fluent in English, couldn’t have dubbed herself.)

Touchstone is maybe thinking that releasing a dubbed “Little Indian” is whetting appetites for the American version--and it may be right--but it is also making at least some of us wish we could have seen this inspired mainstream comedy in French with English subtitles.

* MPAA rating: PG, for crude language, some sexuality and scenes of mild violence. Times guidelines: The film shows scenes of innocent puppy love but is suitable for children.

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‘Little Indian, Big City’

Thierry Lhermitte: Stephan

Ludwig Briand: Mimi-Siku

Patrick Timsit: Richard

Arielle Dombasle: Charlotte

Miou-Miou: Patricia

A Buena Vista release of a Touchstone presentation of an Ice Films/TF1 Films Production with the participation of Canal + and Procirep. Director Herve Palud. Producers Louis Becker and Thierry Lhermitte. Screenplay by Herve Palud and Igor Aptekman; adapted for the screen by Palud, Lhermitte, Philippe Bruneau. Cinematographer Fabio Conversi. Editor Roland Baubeau. Costumes Martine Rapin. Music Manu Katche, Geoffrey Oryema, Tonton David. Production designer Ivan Maussion. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.