Film commentary: Ahco On The Road
Trailer (43 s)A beautiful short film about maternal love in animals.
Follow the adventures of Ahco, a baby elephant lost in the forest, and his happy or unhappy encounters with other animals; the comfort of a maki catta, the danger of crocodiles.
Children may see themselves in this touching character, desperate at the thought of having lost his mother.
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Yellowshed filmsQuestion the film: Ahco On The Road
Understanding the story, the theme, expressing sensitivity and critical thinking.There are no narrative or thematic difficulties in Ahco on the road. The situation of the child who gets lost and can no longer find his parents has been staged many times. It is the treatment of this that is interesting to explore. What are the stages of the character's wandering and what does he learn? The genre of the learning story can be introduced here.
This is an opportunity to ask the children about the way we look at animals. We should start with a question: how do we identify with the character in the film? This means questioning the drawing (its minimalism), its expressiveness or its silence. But also the mechanisms by which the film communicates emotions to us: see the work on "subjective" frames (which are a must in horror or suspense films) and on the musical accompaniment. This leads logically to the (complex) question of the possibility of understanding the animal (its language, its sensations, its thoughts) and to explaining the notion of anthropomorphism.
1 What path does the elephant follow, once it has left the herd?
It goes at random, first following the butterfly, then reacting (attraction, fear) to the animals it meets, then wandering around looking for the way back.
2 What kind of encounter does it have?How does he react?
He meets other animals, each with different attitudes (friendly, indifferent, aggressive).He is surprised by each one, which shows his inexperience as well as his curiosity.
3 What other stories does this one remind us of?
Thumbelina and similar tales, where children are lost and try to find their home.
4 How do we understand the character's emotions?
By resemblance to what we would feel (or have felt) in the same situation.
5 Does the drawing tell us anything about the character's emotions?
Not very much.The characters are quite silent.
6 What role does the music play?
On the contrary, the music is expressive and follows the elephant's wonder, astonishment, anxiety or panic.
7 Do we see the elephant in all the images in the film?
Almost in all of them. And when we don't see him, we see through his eyes.The film is entirely centred on this character.
8 Why are we afraid when the crocodile bites the elephant?
We imagine how we would feel.We attribute the same feelings to the animal as we do (anthropomorphism).
9 Do we know how the elephant would think in reality?
We do not know for sure how elephants think and feel.Human emotions and thoughts are understood through language (verbal, body language), which we have learned. Elephants do not have this language. We can only try to imagine what they think and feel, by analogy.
"School and cinema" scheme A story of a baby elephant taken in and of the difficult cohabitation between humans and wild animals in a small village in the jungle of Siam: "Chang", M. C. Cooper & E. B. Schoedsack (1927).
Download the PDF of the film's educational activities
Created with the support of the French Ministry of Education and the CNC.Family viewing of the film, educational activities with parents at home and with teachers in class.
Cinema frame (Plastic arts) (Cycle 2 and 3)
Educational activities proposed by Bruno Pellier based on the film Ahco On TheRoad.
Réseau Canopé course (Ecology in solidarity)
Thematic course created by Marie-Jo Lantam Ninsao based on 4 films including Ahco On The Road.
Discover other educational sheets created with the support of the Ministry of Education and the CNC...
