Asparagus

Eye popping colors painting pretty pictures; animation that flows and fluctuates like a great, surging sea; this is a brilliant little film, one that excites and amuses both the eyes and mind. With its beautifully animated, sometimes oddly obscene visuals and haunting soundtrack, this is a weird short to say the least, but it is gorgeous and entertaining nonetheless. There is plenty of fun to be had with this quick oddity as long as you have a mind open enough to embrace such a wild, experimental ride. There is no real plot, and most of what occurs is likely to radically bewilder and flabbergast the common viewer, any casual moviegoer whose virtually a virgin to avant garde cinema may dismiss this immediately as plot less, pointless drivel; however, if you greet the film's weird vibe with open arms, you may find a treasure of animation that is shocking, grotesque, funny, vulgar, bizarre, beautiful, heavily atmospheric, creepy, unique, engrossing, provocative, and fantastically original.

It has been almost two decades since I saw this film, and I enter my comments only because nobody else has. I don't trust my memory much, but it's better than nothing.

_Asparagus_, as I recall it, was a beautiful dreamlike sequence of psychedelic images, with no clear plot or action. A woman discovers her own power and womanhood by working magic on her environment -- perhaps.

Many of the images were of receding perspectives of stage curtains and scenery, rolling back and opening to reveal successive depths; perhaps this can be compared to the vaginal symbolism in Judy Chicago's installation _The Dinner Party_, with which this film is approximately contemporary.

The music was also dreamlike and its slow progression fit the slow evolution of the images on screen.

The film is definitely _adult_ animation; parents should view it before deciding whether to present it to their children.

I hope someone who has seen _Asparagus_ more recently than I will take a moment to provide a more cogent review.

I am giving ASPARAGUS a 5 simply because it has lovely quality animation. This animated film appears as if they merged the Art Deco and 1970s Pop Art movements to make a truly unique looking film. Also, the color palate is interesting--as the film seems to use a lot of reds, oranges and pinks--all helping to create an interesting style. However, as for the film itself, I just don't get it. Now I understand that the plot is supposed to be surreal and bizarre, but it just seemed, at times, like veggie porn. And, if I want to see something sexy, it won't be in the form of vegetables! Such "sexy"(?) imagery is a closeup of a woman pooping out asparagus as well as scenes of a hand or a mouth performing sex acts with this same vegetable--and I doubt if I'll be able to look at this particular veggie the same way again. Along with this, there is tons of other phallic imagery.

Overall, while I understand what the animator was trying to say, my point is why? Sure, you can show drawings representing penises and various sex acts...but to why? Sure, you can try to shock people but I was less shocked and left wondering why and what makes this worth seeing? If you want to see a "dirty film", why not chose something better? Is there some sort of creepy underground for this sort of stuff that I am not aware of or is this just for shock value?

A short but sweet masterpiece of obscure feminine energy, a cryptic sort of nostalgia, and psychedelic art from another planet.

The opening sequence is about as close to the opening sequence to Shrek as you are gonna get (the only good part of Shrek). It won be right away with that title card...

I kind of wish I would have known about this when I was a 19 year old stoner. I feel like it would have been one of my favorite things to turn on over and over again when my friends and I were hanging around in the basement at my mom's town house while taking bong rips.

The art style is equal parts beautiful and nightmarish. The jagged movements feel like those of bad dreams, yet the content is mostly pleasant, colorful, and otherwise calming on the surface.

While the first half reminded me of what it felt like to be a young child at an aunt's house, I wasn't sure what to take of the second half. I took no thematic purpose from it, yet I thoroughly enjoyed it in all its weirdness. In the end, I don't even know what the asparagus itself represents, and I love it that way. I've never seen anything quite like this. It is entirely worth your 18 minutes. I will definitely be revisiting it in the future.

I found the images to be insightful, and was glad to see that the director was not afraid to portray the feminine in depth. It's very hard to explain, since this short is an abstract, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Some people may be uncomfortable with the overt sexual imagery, though, especially the scene in the garden.