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| The Red Balloon (Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection) | 
 enlarge | Director: Albert Lamorisse
Actor: Red Balloon
Studio: Janus Films
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.85
You Save: $6.10 (41%)
New (44) Used (6) Collectible (1) from $8.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  130 reviews
Sales Rank: 967
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 34
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: IMEDCC1746D
UPC: 715515028820
EAN: 0715515028820
ASIN: B0012Z361M
Theatrical Release Date: 1956
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED!
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| Customer Reviews:
 An enchanting film for the child in each of us. February 21, 2008
16 out of 21 found this review helpful
After first seeing them as a child, I recently experienced a theatrical double feature of the beautifully restored prints of The Red Balloon and White Mane, finally available in DVD format. (The Criterion Collection released a laserdisc of the films in 1986.) French award-winning filmmaker, Albert Lamorisse is best known for The Red Balloon (Le Ballon rouge) (1956), which not only earned him the Palme d'Or Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, but an Oscar that same year (the only dialogue-free film ever to win the award). His two children, Pascal and Sabine are featured in the film. With a running time of just thirty-four minutes, The Red Balloon follows the adventures of a young boy (Pascal), who discovers a sentient red balloon in the Menilmontant neighborhood of Paris. The balloon befriends Pascal and then follows him through the streets of Paris, drawing inquisitive looks from adults and envious looks from other children. The balloon upsets the authoritarian figures in Pascal's life, namely his teacher and mother. After the balloon is destroyed (or crucified like Jesus, as some critics have suggested) by a gang of neighborhood bullies, Pascal is transported above Paris by a cluster of balloons. This is an equally poignant and truly enchanting film that will captivate children of all ages.
G. Merritt
 Sweet childhood tale July 8, 2002
15 out of 19 found this review helpful
The Red Balloon is a charming, childhood fantasy set in Paris, "The City of Light." This short film is the story of a lonely little French boy who makes friends with a lonely red balloon. The balloon seems to have a mind of its own, waiting for the small boy, following him, and obeying his orders most of the time. The film makes its way with pretty much zero dialogue, and focuses on the lovely visuals. They used to show this film to us in elementary school, and I'll always remember the scene where the little boy encounters a little girl with a blue balloon, and the balloons want to follow each other as if they were a pair of dogs out on a walk with their owners. The story takes an ugly turn when a group of bullies decide to hunt down the little boy and destroy his balloon, simply because they have nothing better to do. But upon doing so, all the balloons in all of Paris come to the good little boy, to carry him off into the sky, and to who knows where...
Up, Up & Away ~ A Beautiful Tale Set In The "City Of Lights" April 30, 2008
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
Synopsis: Young French boy discovers a red balloon on the streets of Paris. When he discovers the balloon is too large to take on the bus he decides to walk to his destination. His new acquisition is soon noticed by a group of bullies who desire the balloon for themselves and a chase ensues. Will the boy get away with his balloon intact? What eventually happens is both bittersweet and unexpected. It's truly the stuff from which delightful day dreams are made.
Critique: For me, the charming little '56 French film `The Red Balloon' carries with it fond memories of grammar school. Whenever it was too rainy outside for recess the student body would be gathered into the cafeteria to watch a short film or a couple of cartoons. Without question the film most requested by the young audience was `The Red Balloon.'
It had been at least forty years since my last viewing of this childhood classic. I'm happy to say that it still possesses all the charm and childhood wonder as it had upon its initial release fifty years ago. Looking at the streets of Paris as they were in the mid-fifties is a delight all its own serving as a mini-time capsule of a more innocent, naive time in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
`The Red Balloon' is waiting to enchant a whole new generation of viewers! This is definitely a film that belongs in every child's DVD collection.
An excellent video with such meaning... October 30, 1999
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
I remember seeing this when I was little. I am a teacher, and my young four-year-old class saw this, and never had I see the children so interested in a video like this. They wanted to see it again when it was over!
 your kids will never forgive you October 2, 2001
14 out of 66 found this review helpful
... Nonetheless, for those of us who were born in the 60s, there's one factor, above all others, that forged our contempt : The Red Balloon. We are the lost generation that had to sit through this godawful flick in some stinking grade school auditorium every time that it rained and we weren't allowed out on the playground for recess. I don't recall, but I suppose the first time we saw it we may have even thought it was mildly cute. It's fairly harmless--a little kid is followed all around some miserable, bombed out, French city by a vibrantly colored red balloon that he finds tied to a lamppost. It eludes the grasp of others, but bobs and weaves all over the place so that the boy can tow it around. After disrupting school and church it is finally hunted down by a gang of nearly feral French schoolchildren who stone it to death. There follows the obligatory resurrection (the balloon having previously been immaculately conceived and crucified) as the boy is transported heavenwards by a host of balloons. Hard to believe then how grating these 34 minutes of celluloid become by the end of the first viewing, never mind on the umpteenth. We used to sit in the dark and pray that just this one time someone would burst the balloon in the first few minutes and save us from misery. To no avail...
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