Save Ralph

Lasting less than 4 minutes, this perfect blend of the lighthearted and the disturbing made me squirm in a way I definitely did not expect (if you've seen it, you know exactly what scene I'm talking about).

I have the feeling there's an abundance of shabby PETA videos and extremely cheesy films dealing with this topic, only to inadvertently do disservice to the topics they tackle and the art of cinema, ultimately disrespecting the intelligence of the more discerning audience.

But I can confidently say that Save Ralph, the newest film made with the collaboration of Humane Society International, is not one of them, and I'll be positively gobsmacked if this can be expanded into a full-length feature film, even if it would take a few more years.

In particular, the puppet and set designer extraordinaire Andy Gent (well-known for his work as chief animator on Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' and head of puppet department on 'Isle of Dogs') knocked it out of the park here. During the short film's panel discussion, he described his stop-motion animation (which I regard as magnificently detailed eye-candy) for this film as a "labour of love". I mean, the production crew poured an entire year of hard work into the animation. What's not to admire about this film? I'm just glad that it turned out to be good including its animation.