Disenchantment and The City of Lost Children

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s The City of Lost Children explores the space between childhood as children experience it and the dream of childhood that resonates in the cultural imaginary. Drawing upon Arjun Appadurai’s work on commoditisation (here, the commoditisation of childhood), the authors show how the film addresses--with fantastical imagery yet serious intent--the loss (or, rather, the absence) of innocence and enchantment that necessarily obtains in a capitalist world, and the tactics deployed by children to survive and make survival meaningful to themselves.