A cinematic adaptation of "The Little Prince," Antoine de Saint-Exupery's beloved 1943 novella, is a risky proposition. There have been adaptations before, including the live-action version directed by Stanley Donen in 1974, but none have really captured the magic of the original book, or have done justice to Saint-Exupery's distinctive, cherished drawings. Now, however, "The Little Prince" ("Hoshi no Ojisama to Watashi") has opened in Japan, approximately four months before its U.S. release, slated for March 18, 2016.

Back in June, director Mark Osborne and the movie's character supervisor, Hidetaka Yosumi, came to Tokyo for an early promotional tour, and to show the press some of the completed footage. (At this point the movie was still in postproduction.)

"The story was so precious to me, as it is to millions of people worldwide," Osborne says. "I really wanted to get it right, which is why I moved to Paris for two years with my family to work on the film while getting a sense of the kind of environment in which Saint-Exupery lived and worked."