Zarafa

Zarafa (2012) is a hand-drawn animated adventure you can watch online on iFILM. This French-Belgian family film draws on a real episode from the 1820s: the journey of the very first giraffe ever brought to France.

It opens at night in the desert. A boy named Maki slips his shackles, runs into the dark, and crosses paths with an orphaned baby giraffe — Zarafa — who is as alone in the world as he is. A desert nomad, Hassan, takes the pair to Alexandria, where the Pasha of Egypt orders the animal delivered as a gift to King Charles X. What follows is a long road across sand, sea and mountains, with slavers, pirates and even a hot-air balloon between Maki and the friend he refuses to abandon. A grandfather narrates the tale to his grandchildren, wrapping the whole thing in the warmth of a bedtime story.

Directors Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie skip the computer gloss for pencil-and-paint craft and wide, open-sky vistas built like old-school adventure cinema. It's gentle, unhurried and never talks down to kids — a good pick for young viewers worn out by frantic 3D blockbusters. Stream Zarafa (2012) online on iFILM.