The Day of the Crows (Le Jour des Corneilles in its original name) is a 2012 French-language animated film. It was co-produced in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Canada, directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint, written by Amandine Taffin, and was loosely inspired by a book written in 2004 by Jean-François Beauchemin. It was released in France 24th October 2012.
A boy lives in the heart of the forest, raised by his father Courge, a tyrannical giant who reigns triumphant and prevents his son from exploring beyond the forest. Courge hates and is paranoid of human civilization, to the point of raising his son to think that there aren't any other people in the world. The kid believes that if he steps outside the forest, he'll disappear forever. Ignorant about the ways of men, the boy grows up wild, with the placid ghosts who haunt the forest his only company.
That is until the day that he is forced to go to the nearest village, where he meets young Manon...
The Day of the Crows provides examples of the following tropes:
- Armies Are Evil: Downplayed. The soldiers stationed near the village are portrayed as trigger-happy idiots who shoot at birds for fun, but their sergent seems to be a Reasonable Authority Figure and they ultimately never truly antagonize the main characters.
- Bittersweet Ending: Courge ends up sacrificing his life to save his son and Manon from a fire, but then becomes one of the ghosts of the forest and is reunited with his wife in the afterworld. His son leaves the forest with Manon, implying that he will live with her and her father in the village. He's sad that his father is dead, but also happy to realize that, even though he was bad at showing it, his father loved him.
- Clever Crows: Apparently clever enough to learn simple words like "Manon" or "Doctor", and to understand the hero's instructions when he asks one of them to search for Manon and a doctor and lead them to him.
- Creepy Crows: Averted. While Courge thinks of them as messengers of the demons, his son befriends one of them after saving its life and a flock of them helps him call Manon for help during the climax.
- Death by Childbirth: The hero's mother died while giving birth to him.
- Foil: When it comes to their parenting methods, the doctor is one for Courge. Courge is stern, rough and sometimes abusive. The doctor is warm and caring.
- Freudian Excuse: Courge is a tough and sometimes abusive father, but it's revealed near the end of the film that his wife dying while giving birth to their son deeply affected his sanity.
- Good Parents: The village's doctor is a good and caring father towards his daughter Manon.
- Hate Sink: Mrs. Ronce. Since the driving conflict of the movie is the Son Courge's relationship with his father, she isn't truly an antagonist, and is a nuisance at best. But she sure knows how to act despicably in every scene she's in. Her final scene showing her being chased off by crows and kids throwing snowballs at her is very satisfying.
- Implied Love Interest: Manon and the Son Courge. Over the course of the film, she has kissed him two times on the cheek and both kids are shown to like the other's company, but in the end nothing is confirmed.
- Meaningful Name: "Ronce" means "bramble", a fitting name to highlight Mrs. Ronce's less-than-pleasant personality and the fact that she's a thorn in the heroes' side.
- Misplaced Retribution: Mrs. Ronce hates Courge because she considers him responsible of her brother's death. He isn't. Her brother accidentally set his barn on fire while trying to chase Courge off the building (and shooting at him with a rifle), because he didn't approve of Courge's relationship with his daughter.
- No Name Given:
- Courge's son hasn't been given a name. His father only calls him "Son".
- We never learn the doctor's name either; nor the name of the hero's mother.
- In fact, the only character of whom we know the first name is Manon. Courge is actually the father's family name and we don't learn Mrs. Ronce's first name either. All the other characters aren't named in the movie.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: They have animal heads, can't talk, and it's hinted that only kids can see them.
- Puppy Love: Manon kisses the Son Courge on the cheek two times in the movie and he's shown to also be interested in her.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- The village's doctor doesn't let Mrs. Ronce impress him and rightfully points out that Courge is not responsible of her brother's death or that he was in no condition to destroy the army's camp.
- The sergent. After the Son Courge accidentally destroys part of his camp, the sergent (having not seen the culprit) immediately suspects Courge because of the rumors spread by Mrs. Ronce. However, when he sees that the man was too injured to be able to walk, he listens to the doctor's arguments and admits that you can't convict a man just because he has a monstrous appearance.
- Together in Death: After he dies, Courge becomes one of the ghosts haunting the forest, and is reunited with the ghost of his wife.
- Wild Child: The main character of the film has lived his childhood isolated from human contact, and has no experience of social behavior.
