Little Indian Big City (1996)

"With a special appearance by Miou Miou!" - promotional poster for "Little Indian, Big City"

Set in the Amazon rain forest and in Paris, "Little Indian, Big City," was originally done in French. When it appeared on American shores, the dialogue was over-dubbed into English. Charlie Brill (remember him from TV's "Tattletales?" He is married to Mitzi McCall) and the guy who did the father dinosaur's voice on TV's "Dinosaurs" were some of the voice talent used. This is probably the first film to be over-dubbed into English, as opposed to being sub-titled, in a while. Well, "Rumble in the Bronx" did it too, but that seemed more like a joke. This is all done here because the film is aimed at children supposedly and, of course, children have a bit of a problem reading sub-titles.

But the film isn't really for children. There is some talk of divorce and plenty of sexual situations. The film centers on a businessman who must seek out his estranged wife to get a divorce so he can marry his new love, a goofy "new age" type who has a guru. He travels to the rain forest to find his first wife and discovers he has a son. Eventually, he brings the son to his home in the big city, in this case Paris. Since the Eiffel Tower is used in the plot, there's no way the distributors can pretend this film takes place in an American city. Anyway, the boy who plays the Indian boy here is about 10 or 11. He is already a ladies man and spends many a night sleeping in other girls hammocks. When he comes to America... I mean France, he is pretty successful at doing the same thing.

The film is your typical fish-out-of-water story, this time with a young boy playing the fish. This makes the film quite interesting as the young boy who plays the titular "Little Indian" is quite charming. Of course, his voice is over-dubbed by a rather good child talent as well, but the light in this young actors eyes on screen also adds to the character. He's quite a charmer. The most striking moment in the film comes when the Indian boy climb up on the Eiffel Tower and then sits, quietly, looking out at the majestic view. Highlighted with excellent music, the scene reminds us of how we overlook the beauty in our own back yards. Not only does our sense of propriety keep us from enjoying such a view, our inability to actually climb the Tower and our unwillingness to take the chance also hold us at bay. The naive, sweet, inquisitive boy in the film has none of these obstacles to overcome, however. It is perfectly natural for him to commit such an act. As the beauty of the Paris panorama unfolds, we hunger for his innocence within ourselves.

Then, on the other hand, the film is completely muddled by sub-plots about Russian business men and the father character's impending marriage which are fused into the script. All of this nonsense distracts us from the truly interesting aspect of the film, namely the young boy loose in the city and how his upbringing makes his naive actions seem delightful. The film has wonderful moments of this type, with a snooty neighbor lady inspiring much humor, but, at times, it's not enough. The filmmakers should have concentrated more on the real story here.

Still, the father, who looks a bit like Brian Benben from TV's "Dream On," does have wonderful moments with the boy in the film. Their chemistry makes a lot of what happens quite watchable. It is only when he reacts with the other adults n the film, particularly his boob of a business partner, that we can't tolerate him. All of the other characters in the film are as dull as dishwater or as irritating as fingernails on a chalkboard.

"Little Indian, Big City" isn't a great film. But it's not as bad as it could be. Sure, the over-dubbing is tiresome and the plot gets dull but there is some heart here. You just have to pick through the debris to get to it.

Note: Director of Photography is Fabio Converse. Music by Manu Katche and others. A song by Johnny Rivers is used over the end credits.

At one time the film was to be called "An Indian in Paris;" This title is used in the end credits.

The Eiffel Tower is 984 feet high. It was built for the Exposition of 1889.

The film was remade in English as "Jungle 2 Jungle" starring Tim Allen and Sam Huntington.

Review written in 1996

Report Card

Script: C-

Acting: C-

Cinematography\Lighting: C-

Special Effects\Make Up: D

Music: C

Final Grade: C-