Don't listen to the negative reviews

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Every rainy day in elementary school we were subjected to this horror show of a movie. A boy is stalked around Paris by a sentient red balloon. Stupidly, the boy befriends this balloon instead of running away in terror from this unholy object. Even though I was already reading Stephen King and grew up watching horror movies, none of that scared me as much as this terrifying tale of a stalker balloon. The ending is by far the worse when the boy is abducted by all the balloons of Paris and it ends with him flying high in the sky. Leaving one wondering what will happen next. Will a flock of birds fly into the balloons popping them? Or will the balloons abandon the boy and leave him to end up impaled upon the Eiffel Tower? I don't know how anyone can possibly find this movie artistic or charming. It's terrifying and to this day I really, REALLY hate balloons.

Delightful fantasy piece. Make of the fable what you will, but the balloon certainly brings a sense of camaraderie to the child - protection from bullies both young and old. And its brightness contrasts with the drabness of his home and neighbourhood. And where are his parents? Wonderful street scenes of the Paris of 1956.

I first saw this movie when I was 7 years old, in France. It is now so far as 47 years. What a wonderful movie, who tells about love, envy, travel, incomprehension on behalf of the others, dreams of childhood, passion for our belongings, blindness of the adults and many more... I have never given a 10 for any movie. But I give it to this one, because it is the movie which gave me the desire to see movies. It is the movie which had created in me the passion for stories told with images and music. Life is so beautiful and the cinema gives to our lives still to take advantage of it, with a simple story to be told, so simple as that of that red balloon flying over our heads.

A friend recommended Pixar's "Up" to me recently. He said that he thought it had a world cinema 'flavour' to it.When he then said of that film's plot, I immediately said that it sounded exactly like Albert Lamorisse's The Red Balloon. He was intrigued, perplexed.Watching Red Balloon - one half of a Lamorisse DVD, the other being 'White Mane' - directly after 'Up', the similarities echoed ever more. About how when cornered and facing certain 'death' whether that be balloon or small French boy, a last bid for freedom is at least a dream, or even a prayer. 'God', you might say, 'get me out of here' and....well, you can fill that picture in yourselves.Anyway, back to the almost dialogue-free story. Being somewhat sceptical about having small children being a bit twee and 'Ahh' being sighed audibly by (stereotypically, on my half, admittedly) every elderly schoolmistress across the land as said big, red floaty object follows the boy around like a lovesick puppy.Scorn indeed, but a living, breathing Paris, in the early morning sunshine, along with occasional views of familiar landmarks keeps one keen to see where Mr floaty balloon will float to next. If, like me, you're also probably trying to catch out who and what is controlling this meandering object. "Are there strings attached when watching this DVD?"The film does have charm and is short enough not to have felt that too much of one's valuable life has been used to see it. This was my fourth viewing and I saw bits I hadn't before and the ending is really one of those that will rekindle faith and humanity into the coldest of hearts. Including slightly scornful and sceptical ones like me!