Eleanor’s Secret, or (Kerity, la maison des contes) is a French-Italian 2009 traditionally animated film directed by Dominique Monfery.
The movie stars Nat, a young boy who travels with his family to collect the belongings of his family’s recently deceased great aunt. While at her house, he discovers a big secret. Eleanor has kept the original copies of several books. The characters in the books themselves can come to life and tell Nat he is now the book keeper. To keep their essence alive, all Nat must do is read a spell. There’s just one problem. Nat can’t read! Nat must now keep the books safe under his watch and muster up the courage to read.
Eleanor’s Secret provides examples of:
- A Dog Named "Dog": Ogre is a hungry...ogre.
- Absurdly Long Stairway: Downplayed; The stairway from the beach to the house is not that far, but because Nat and his friends are really small, each step looks like a hill.
- Big Sister Bully: Angelica is a constant jerk to Nat just because he cannot read.
- Blush Stickers: Angelica has these on her cheeks.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Little Match Girl gives Nat a match for his journey back to the library. It ends up helping him later when he uses the match to fight off the crab.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Mr. Pickall hums his own Leitmotif after moving Eleanor’s books to his shop.
- Evil Old Folks: The Wicked Fairy acts less like a villain, but more like a strict cranky old lady who berates Nate for being illiterate.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Since Nat is shrunken down, the crab seen on the beach earlier now towers over him. It chases Eleanor, Alice, Ogre, and the White Rabbit across the sand tunnels.
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: The movie ends with both Nat and Angelica falling asleep next to each other after reading Alice in Wonderland.
- Hair Color Dissonance: Nat and Angelica are brunettes with hair that can either look brownish-purple or black depending on the lighting.
- Hammerspace: The White Rabbit can somehow store a large pocket watch behind his back.
- Magic Feather: Pinocchio gives Nat Geppetto’s glasses and tells him that they are magic glasses that will help him read better. It’s even evident to the audience that Pinocchio is lying when his nose grows once Nat leaves. Once Nat realizes that they do not work, all he has to do is believe in himself.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Contrary to what his book counterpart would suggest, the Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood is actually a very friendly guy who is close friends with Little Red Riding Hood.
- This also carries over to Captain Hook, who is much more helpful and not nearly as bad as his book counterpart.
- Not Afraid to Die: The Wicked Fairy (from Sleeping Beauty) shrinks Nat to the size of the book characters when he is unable to read the spell. All the book characters call her out for risking their chances of disappearing forever, but the Wicked Fairy does not mind dying alongside them because at least it will mean she will die with everyone else instead of being left uninvited again.
- Passed in Their Sleep: Adrian mentions that Eleanor died peacefully in her sleep while sitting outside her house.
- Parachute Petticoat: Alice floats down like this when she and her group arrive at Mr. Pickall’s shop.
- Puppy Love: Nat has an obvious crush on Alice from Alice in Wonderland that he does a poor job trying to hide. At some points, it seems Alice also likes Nat.
- "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: While the message on reading isn’t blatantly said out loud, the movie still highlights how important it is for young kids by having Nat muster up the courage to read so he can keep all the book characters alive.
- Secondary Character Title: Eleanor has recently died by the time the movie’s events take place. The film does revolve around her secretly being the keeper of the original copies of several pieces of classic literature and Nat having to live up to her legacy.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Nat looks a lot like his sister due to both of them having freckles, small eyes, moderate noses, and very round heads.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Captain Hook talks like a stereotypical pirate.
- Unexplained Accent: Nat’s father speaks with a slight Irish accent while his wife has an American accent. It seems to carry over to their kids because Angelica has a British accent while Nat has an American one.
- Villainy-Free Villain: Despite being an obstacle to the book characters, Mr. Pickall is just doing his job by looking for things to sell in his shop.
- Youthful Freckles: Both Nat and Angelica are little children with freckles on their cheeks.
