'Long Way North (2015)' is certainly not devoid of problems, with perhaps the biggest being it's jarringly choppy - if delightfully simple - animation style that runs at a generous twelve frames per second and takes a long time to get used to despite looking pretty gorgeous in a cut-out kind of way once you do - or if you pause the piece at any point. A close second is it's really poor English dub (though I haven't heard the French original so I can't compare) that sees everyone other than the lead and a couple of others turn in performances as wooden as the hull of the ship most of the movie takes place on. After a slow start, however, the picture settles into its own pace to provide a methodical and captivating character-driven experience that doesn't quite stick the landing (finishing before a proper finale ever really occurs) but gets you essentially as invested as possible and delivers an inevitable emotional punch instead. Ultimately, it's an enjoyable and interesting watch throughout its duration that should work its charms on even the iciest of hearts. 7/10

I've definitely seen this film before. It's essentially Atlantis: The Lost Empire without the blue lasers. But for what it is, it still stands on its own feet. We really get behind the protagonist when she is humiliated and we wish that she will prove herself. The animation style was minimalistic which helps to focus on the real details like the characters. My only complaint is that it ended a bit suddenly.

Long Way North is a 2016 French-Danish co-production featuring the work of first time animation director Rémi Chayé who eschews the ubiquitous CGI and embraces an old-fashioned hand drawn approach. The result in terms of animation is only partially successful. The film is set in 1882 St. Petersburg, Russia as well as the northern arctic expanses of that country, featuring landscapes that resemble beautiful (as one critic puts it) 1920s railway posters. The pastel-like still images are often haunting. Unfortunately, the drawings of people here receive short shrift, resembling Japanese anime characters, with a quick line for a nose and a mouth.

That said, the clever story makes up for these missed drawing opportunities. It's a tale that could be easily transformed into a Disney live action musical, with its 15 year old heroine Sacha proving her mettle after running away from home in a brave attempt to find her missing explorer grandfather, Oloukine and his lost ship, the Duvai-with the million ruble reward promised by the Tsar for the safe return of the ship and its crew.

The inciting incident occurs when Sacha discovers a note from her grandfather suggesting that everyone has been looking in the wrong place for the missing ship. When she attempts to alert Prince Tomsky, an arrogant advisor to the Tsar and member of his inner circle, he belittles her in front of her parents and guests at a debutante's ball. Tomsky considers Oloukine's disappearance an embarrassment to the Tsar and intends to prevent the naming of a newly built library wing for the missing explorer. Not only that, he also plans to ruin Sacha's father's chance to be appointed as the new ambassador to Rome.

After Sacha is blamed for Tomsky's machinations that humiliate her father, in true Wizard of Oz fashion, she runs away from home and ends up taking a train to the coast. There she discovers the existence of The Norge-a ship with a reinforced hull-which can travel to the icy Northern seas and hopefully aid in finding the Duvai. But before convincing the Norge's captain (Lund) to take her on a sea voyage in a quest to find the Duvai, she proves her (aforementioned) mettle by working as a waitress in the White Bear tavern run by the tough-as-nails proprietress, Olga. The narrative here is reminiscent of Melville's Ishmael in Moby Dick, who meets and interacts with a group of salty seafaring characters.

The cleverness of the writing is embodied in how Sacha negotiates passage on the Norge. She's first duped by the duplicitous first mate Larson (Captain Lund's brother) who promises her passage with payment of a set of her valuable earrings. This foreshadows the subsequent scene in which Sacha is left behind but is later able to confront Larson when the crew returns early on from an ill-fated expedition up north. In this confrontation, Lund learns of his brother's duplicity and,as he is an honorable sort, agrees to allow Sacha on board and look for the Duvai, after Larson admits that he gambled away proceeds from the sale of Sacha's earrings!

Much of the rest of Long Way North is based on the true stories of the expeditions of British Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. Here Sacha and the crew must survive the elements--including navigating the ship on a storm tossed sea and using dynamite to blast through seemingly impenetrable ice floes. There are a series of exciting scenes including Captain Lund almost falling off a glacier and sustaining a serious leg injury (later he's carried on a cot after the crew decides not to abandon him in the icy expanse). The big emotional moment comes when Sacha finds the frozen corpse of her grandfather along with his logbook, which guides her and the crew to the Duvai-and eventual return to safety.

Long Way North was originally voiced in French with a later English dub. Having seen both, I must say the French version is far superior. This is a fairly sophisticated adventure story despite the overall "young adult" trappings. Take the kids to see it and wait for Disney to pick it up as a live action musical extravaganza!