Maya, Give Me a Title (Maya, Donne-moi un Titre) is a sweet and imaginative film about the intersection of art and parenthood. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry combines a simple animated style with masterful stop-motion technique to create an hour-long compilation of short films—all inspired by titles creatively provided by his young daughter, Maya. While it may not win awards for thematic depth, this six-year-long project is an ode to joyful fatherhood, whimsical childhood, and a celebration of filmmaking as an act of love.
Maya and her parents are often separated by the demand of their busy lives. Michael knows that his daughter’s childhood is slipping by, so he devises a mixed-media approach to bond with his family. In one of the most charming conceits of late, Gondry taps into the childlike wonder of Maya’s imagination, asking for her story ideas so he can bring them to life as cartoons.
Using cinema as their vessel for communication, the film becomes a playpen where father and daughter connect. Under what he calls the “triangle of animation”, Michael animates the stories Maya provides, Maya watches them, and her mother will read them—akin to Gondry’s goal of echoing the tradition of bedtime storytelling.
Intercut with real footage of both Maya as she grows and Michael’s hands-on craftmanship, the 5–15-minute vignettes play out with scrappiness, sincerity, and youthful abandon. For Gondry, twelve photos produce one second of magic —every second is worth it for the smile on Maya’s face.
Each of the short stories in the film grows and changes in tandem with Maya’s ageing. The first short, Maya watches the Earthquake features Maya trying to be a photojournalist as the world collapses—a story so experimental and scattered that Gondry changes the plot a minute in. What follows ranges from fantastical volcanoes and Maya as a mermaid, to hammock-stealing squirrels, the invention of a bird plane, and even a detective serial where Maya becomes a policewoman battling three cats and a giant robot. These tales jump from self-insert fantasies to more structured, expansive narratives.
The standout short, Maya in the Sea with a Bottle of Ketchup –better seen than explained—delivers a tone of surreal absurdism that perfectly encapsulates the more inventive side to Maya and Gondry’s personalities. This is an animation that fully embraces its goal of capturing the imaginative mind of a young child. Fun, colour, and vibrancy remain the throughline as Maya’s thought process broadens in scope.
The craft is where the film truly comes to life. Using coloured paper, markers, scissors, supermarket tape, and his smartphone, Gondry creates a hand-drawn, stop-motion, animation style that evokes a Sunday afternoon arts-and-crafts session—full of messy cut-outs, bright colours, bold lines, and a retro cartoon feel. Paired with Jean-Michel Bernard’s playful score and spirited narration from Pierre Niney, the sweet—if sometimes superfluous—proceedings use meta-storytelling techniques to bring Maya’s stories to life just as vividly as her family room.
Maya, Give Me a Title is a reminder that no matter how busy life gets, there are always new and inventive ways to connect with your family. Michael Gondry’s eclectic, silly, and delightfully innocent stop-motion adventure is a deeply personal expression of a father’s love—told through the imagination of a child who evolves with wonder and curiosity. With a lean sixty-minute runtime and an earnest mixed-media approach, it’s messy, playful, and reflective— just like childhood itself.
Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Maya Gondry, Pierre Niney, Miriam Matejovsky
Writer: Michel Gondry
Producer: Georges Bermann
Composer: Jean-Michel Bernard
Cinematographer: Lauren Brunet (live segments)
Editors: J. Logan Alexander, Elise Fievet, Jake Schwartz
Animator: Michel Gondry