Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a 2013 French 3D computer-animated musical fantasy film based on the novel La Mécanique du cœur written by musician Mathias Malzieu, and the concept album by the French rock band Dionysos, of which Malzieu is the frontman. The music of the film was entirely composed by Dionysos. The original French language version, Jack et la mécanique du cœur, which translates literally as Jack and the Mechanic of the Heart, was released in October 2013, with English, German, Finnish, and Spanish-language versions following in 2014. Summary In Edinburgh, Scotland 1874, Jack is born on the coldest day ever. Due to the extreme cold, he is born with a frozen heart that will not beat. The attendant midwife Madeleine saves his life by replacing his heart with a fragile but working cuckoo clock. She then advises him of three rules to prevent his untimely death: he must never play with the hands of the clock, lose his temper, or fall in love. Jack's mother, for reasons known only to her, quickly decides her child would be better raised by Madeleine and departs, leaving Jack. Madeleine, incapable of bearing children of her own, raises and loves him as her own. On Jack's tenth birthday, Madeleine repeats the three rules before taking him into town for the first time. He meets a girl in town named Miss Acacia and becomes infatuated with her. After starting school shortly afterward, he also meets Joe, a bully who is in love with Miss Acacia as well. Jealous, the older boy and his gang of students torment Jack for the next four years. During an assault from Joe, the cuckoo of Jack's clock heart gouges Joe's eye, and Jack runs home believing he had murdered Joe. Madeleine, believing Jack to be a fugitive, helps him to escape.