©Courtesy of NYICFF

So far, Michel Gondry has only released about a dozen features, but his prolific filmography includes dozens of short films and music videos. Unfortunately, we may never have a chance to see his Pharell Williams musical Golden, which was reportedly cancelled due to a creative impasse. Instead, we finally get to enjoy a collection of animated shorts he originally produced for an audience of one. Yet, they are near to his heart, because they were inspired by his daughter, Maya. Despite their geographical separation, Gondry stays close in spirit by sending her regular DIY stop-motion animated films, based on the titles she suggests. Naturally, Maya Gondry is the star of her own adventures collected in her father’s Maya, Give Me a Title, which screens as the Spotlight selection of the 2025 New York International Children’s Film Festival.

In addition to Maya, her mother Miriam Matejovsky (who was credited as a video playback operator on The Science of Sleep) and her maternal grandparents, Steven and Anita Matejovsky often appear as supporting characters in Gondry’s paper cut-out animations. (This technique dates back to the earliest extant animated feature, Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed, released in 1926.) Gondry also has major roles to play in Maya’s escapades, but French actor Pierre Niney (the star of his recent The Book of Solutions, yet to release in North American) supplies his voice-overs.

Appropriately, the real-life, live-action Maya mischievously introduces each constituent film, sometimes seemingly daring Gondry to find the right vibe for something that might sound traumatic, like “Maya Watches the Earthquake.” However, Gondry always finds the right outlandishly silly story to match her premise.

 

Frankly, a Freudian couple’s counselor might have a field day analyzing “Maya Takes Her Bath,” in which her mother accidentally shrinks her daughter and flushes down the drain. At least Matejovsky takes a starring role in “Mommy’s Going on a Trip,” wherein Gondry chronicles each leg of her journey in an obsessive Dr. Seuess-like fashion, only to immediately reverse her trek once she reaches her destination.

Perhaps one of the cleverest segments represents Gondry’s temporary depression when Maya briefly stops requesting animated films and her efforts to snap him out of his funk. (This sequence also introduces some refreshing variety of tone into the film, which otherwise mostly hits the same emotional notes.)


Some of Gondry’s stories turn into genuine mock epics, like “Maya in the Sea with a Bottle of Ketchup,” depicting her efforts to prevent the Exxon Valdez of Ketchup spills from contaminating the world’s oceans. Her strategy of employing French fries to save the day is a perfect example of the charmingly absurdist logic that distinguish all Gondry’s component films.

Unfortunately, the reality of COVID intrudes into “Maya and the Hammock,” but weirdly (and perhaps tragically) her grandfather’s scheme to preserve the beach-going experience by mass-producing self-contained hammocks makes about as much sense as a lot what policy-makers and public health “authorities” were telling us at the time.

Following the grand tradition of animated filmmaking, Maya often learns to communicate with various creatures and critters, like the fish in “Maya the Mermaid and the Treasure.” She also sets out to capture a trio of feline master-criminals in “Maya in the Three Cats.” However, this might be the short that best appeals to fans of Gondry’s mind-bending films, because it takes several wild turns that constantly upend viewers’ assumptions.

Of course, all the films have one goal: to entertain Maya. Yet, most young viewers and animation connoisseurs should be similarly charmed. The audience can plainly see all the love that is baked into each frame. Even though each individual film quickly takes wing on wild flights of fantasy, they are always grounded in fatherly affection. Honestly, we could use much more of that on-screen than yet another celebrity vehicle.

The 61-minute Maya, Give Me a Title qualifies as a small film, by almost any measure, but it is endearing and inventive. Obviously, it represents one of Gondry’s most personal releases yet, so it is impossible to envision any future retrospective of the filmmaker’s work without it. Easily recommended for fans of the filmmaker and the cut-out animation method, Maya, Give Me a Title screens again on March 16th, as part of this year’s NYICFF.

Grade: B+

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Here’s the trailer of the film.