Meeting the Little Prince again

MANILA, Philippines — A couple of months ago, my father’s high school best friend and his wife, both emigrants, visited the Philippines, with their kids (aged 13 and 6) for the first time. My father and I rushed to the book store to get gifts for his inaanak — a planner and a Filipino book for the teenage girl, and, after being clueless on what to give to the little boy, my father, a man fond of the classics saw The Little Prince and thought that it was the perfect gift.

I wasn’t as excited about his choice, perhaps because ever since I consumed the book and the film as a kid, I had always subconsciously thought that it was overrated and that it only capitalized on its cute illustrations, the beauty of the French language, and the same idealistic, anti-adulting emotional appeal like that of Peter Pan’s story -- romanticizing about staying a child forever.

But I am no longer that kid. I am 16 years old now and just recently, I met the Little Prince again—as a freebie from accessory shop Kriseldafreedom (@Kriseldafreedom)--but in this edition he speaks Cebuano. People must really like him to adapt him into everything, I thought to myself, so when I learned that the UP Film Center would screen the movie, it just felt right to watch.

I did and indeed, I left the theater having finally understood its popularity.

I realized that its value is in its metaphors (that can only be seen using the heart and not the naked eye), and in its relatability— the film in particular was very relatable because its protagonist was a girl who had her life meticulously planned out for her by a controlling, perfectionistic mother using what they called the “Life Plan,” a restrictive box that would eventually be destroyed by the peculiar old man next door, the pilot who told her the Little Prince’s story—a fountain of metaphors.

The first one that struck me was already mentioned: a box, and how it was used to show the difference in creative thinking between the pilot and the Little Prince, for the latter thought outside the box (about what’s inside it).

There were also the six characters from the other planets; the king, conceited man, tippler, businessman, geographer, and lamplighter,