Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

10/18/2026

Now Victorian Edinburgh could be a chilly place, but it was still unusual for a young lad to be born with his heart frozen solid! Fortunately for "Jack", he has "Madeleine" on hand to quickly improvise. She replaces it with a cuckoo clock that ticks quite loudly but that gets the job done. There are rules, though: he mustn't touch it; he mustn't get over-wrought and he must never fall in love. As a young child those problems don't really bother him, but as he ages and then encounters the fiery "Miss Acacia" this last instruction becomes increasingly difficult for him too comply with. The animated style here reminded me a little of "Coraline" (2009) but with plenty of individuality of it's own as this drama unfolds - complete with it's own little monochrome version of "Romeo and Juliet" tha