The little girl is alone in the room. She is dark and afraid, she trembles and sees monsters in the shadows. But a storyteller appears with a book and begins a fairy tale about a girl with golden hair named Emily Jolie.
This book, like a fairy tale, is not simple. Opening it, Emily finds herself in a fairy tale where she meets blue rabbits who turn red, barely fall in the rain, an ostrich who dreams of performing on Broadway - and many others. But the worst of all the witch who is angry because she is lonely and dreams of finding her handsome prince.
And when the fairy tale ends, Emily wakes up in her room, but she no longer feels afraid and calmly falls asleep, knowing that there are no monsters, and even the most terrible and ugly witch will one day come to her prince - albeit without armor and a white horse - and she will become a princess herself.
Such is the unpretentious plot of this musical fairy tale, created in 1979 for his daughter Emily Philip Chatel, and just a year later she won the hearts of all the children of France. And how was it not to fall in love in those years when there were almost no French musicals, and the great Starmania was just taking her first steps on the scenes of Quebec, and the children were completely deprived? And here immediately such a gift, and even what performers played the roles - Eddie Mitchell, Georges Brossance, Julien Claire - pop icons of that time.
The very first version was recorded on audio and enjoyed such great success that in 1980 a television version of the play was shown on television, unfortunately not preserved in its entirety, only small excerpts. And after 4 years there was a theatrical production, which with minor changes survived to our days, the 2002 version in the production of Mogador was released on video.
In 1997, Emily Jolie received a new sound in the audio version, the star cast of which easily covered all musicals, both staged before and after - Jacques Dutron, Moran, Lara Fabian, Khaled, Zazi, Johnny Halliday and others. The children’s fairy tale, which has grown up more than one generation of French, enjoys the love of viewers and listeners of all generations, which easily proved with what enthusiasm, with what emotions the songs of the icons of the French stage were performed – listen and no proof will be required.
In 2011, the musical was filmed an animated film, the process of creation of which was led by Philip Chatel himself. And again, Emily proved her longevity - and even though the animated fairy tale is quite different from the original, but maybe this is the special magic of the good storyteller Shatel that even such a free interpretation fell in love with the audience, albeit much less than the theatrical version?
If you want to give your child, not yet spoiled by the coolest special effects, but already able to read, a piece of joy - then include Emily Jolie with subtitles and let him plunge into a real fairy tale, not spoiled by anything, where there is no real evil, where every hero is good and where everything ends really well.
10 out of 10