Chicken for Linda (and Tampopo)

It's fun to see something animated that doesn't hit all the same beats as every Disney movie. In the French animated film "Chicken for Linda," about one girl's request for a dish of chicken and peppers and that request's increasingly zany consequences, very little (but, maybe a little) personal growth is accomplished, the police are incompetent oafs to be ignored or vanquished; the smouldering pan doesn't lead to a great act of heroism and fire rescue; the chicken dies. It's laugh-out-loud funny in parts - chicken chasing is inherently funny. It's never mawkish. The animation is unique and colorful and lively. It was a treat. It's appropriate for kids old enough to read subtitles as longs as you are a fun enough parent, like Linda's mom, not to mind a bit of subversion.

Criterion 24/7 followed it up, appropriately as always, with "Tampopo," one of my all-time favorites about the pleasures of food. You'll never eat ramen the same way again. Watch "Tampopo!"