| “ | First, you deceived my daughter... then, you take her identity. Now, you want to take her honor and our FUTURE?! | „ |
| ~ Régine expressing her rage towards Félicie for foiling her plan. |
Régine Le Haut is the main antagonist of the 2016 French-Canadian animated film Ballerina (also known as Leap! in the United States).
She is a cruel and haughty restaurant owner who desires to bring glory to her family name by any means necessary. As the mother of the equally haughty but distraught Camille, she forces her daughter to land a role in the Paris Opera Ballet to achieve that by constantly making Camille practice ballet dances. She is also the arch-nemesis of both Félicie Milliner and Odette.
In the original European and Canadian releases, she was voiced by Julie Khaner. In the American release, she was voiced by Kate McKinnon, who also played Kellyanne Conway in Saturday Night Live, Karen Griffin in Family Guy and Lulu in DC League of Super-Pets.
Role[]
Régine is shown to use her connections as a restaurant owner to get what she desires the most. She is also very haughty to her cleaner Odette, along with a new servant named Félicie, an orphan who ran away from an orphanage to pursue a dream in becoming a ballerina.
During the events of the film, Régine arranged for her daughter Camille to give her the opportunity to perform in an upcoming production of The Nutcracker. But due to Camille's snobbish behavior towards Félicie, the latter takes the letter and assumes the former's identity to enroll in the school for auditions. Despite several improvements over the next several days, Félicie was found out by Régine, who suggests in having her expelled and arrested. However, Régine's request was denied by the school's choreographer Mérante, who allows Félicie to stay, though Félicie became late for the final audition and is unable to perform well, thus Camille wins the audition.
Satisfied that her daughter finally got the role, Régine callously had Félicie sent back to her orphanage, bragging to Odette that she was never going to see her again and that she was fired. However, Félicie returns and engages into a dance battle against Camille, managing to win the hearts of the audience by doing a grand jeté over a flight of stairs. A remorseful Camille then admits defeat by confessing that she only danced because of her mother's influence and that Félicie was more deserving of the part, thus Félicie was set to dance in The Nutcracker.
Unfortunately, this doesn't suit Régine very well as she feels extremely ashamed by this turn of events. Deciding to get even with Félicie by killing her, an angry Régine chases down Félicie to the unfinished Statue of Liberty, ignoring Camille's pleas to leave her alone. Cornering Félicie at the top of the statue, Régine tried to make Félicie's death appear to be a tragic accident. But Victor was able to use a winged contraption he'd made to rescue Félicie, while Régine not giving up, attack Victor and wanted kill them both, but she get tangled up in ropes just as several boards fall down to reveal the new statue, in result Félicie and Victor fly away leaving her tangled up, with her fate left unknown.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Kate McKinnon, who voiced Régine Le Haut in the American version of the film, also voiced the Mother Superior and (ironically enough) Félicie's mother in the film.
- In reality, Régine would've instantly fall even when she got strongly entangled by the ropes from the Statue of Liberty, meaning that it could've immediately lead to her potential death.
- Régine's relationship with Camille somewhat resembles the familial relationship between Lady Tremaine and her own daughters from Charles Perrault's Cinderella, as both involve badly mistreating their children by teaching unpleasant stuff to them. Coincidentally, both Cinderella and Ballerina are of French origin.
- Régine serves as a dark reflection to Odette. Both ladies have pride themselves in contributing to the world of ballet, so any setback would embitter them. They have also mentored different younglings for that particular field, albeit in the most outlandish ways possible. Whereas Odette is a veteran ballerina whose past accident forced her to retire from dancing, Régine wants herself to become recognized without actually doing it all by herself. In addition, Odette's mentoring of Félicie resulted in herself becoming a more openhearted woman to others, unlike Régine, whose methods of forcibly training Camille only made herself even worse. Had Odette never met Félicie and let her pride get the better of her, she would've ended up like Régine.