Cosmos Laundromat

At first I was like "wha the actual..." by the time 12 minutes was up I wanted more. Only to be disappointed that there isn't any. What happens to him? Who is that salesman? What else is going on in that laundromat? I NEED To KNOW.

A surprise. or a collection of surprises. that is all. reference to Little Prince. the amazing texture of hair of Victor. admirable animation. and the inspired music. the seductive absurde. the colors reminding teenager party. and the right Frank. from existential dillema to a form created for surprise it. a salesman so seductive. and vulnerable. a misterius operation. and the answers. in the next episode. short, wow !

I'm not a film student, a film art fanatic or an expert in these things. I'm just an everyday Joe watching a video. I don't care who the director is (unless he does a very good job on the video), what his past is, how experimental something is supposed to be. When I watch a film I look for good directing, good plot, and a purpose. Film for art-sake leaves me cold. Life is too short to watch pointless videos.

I'm no prude... but it's getting pretty sad when they can't make an animation without dropping the F-bomb. The animation on this is acceptable-- and even exceptional when they do a close-up on Frank's face. Other than that not much to see here. There's no indication up front this is a series, so the ending winds up being a no-plot nonsensical letdown. The entire video consists of primarily two scenes: a field of sheep and a laundromat (well a third scene, but spoilers).

While the premise is semi-interesting, the fact that they never really take it anywhere or explain anything quickly dissolves any expectations one may have in this. The high point of the video quickly turns (literally) into something that makes no sense. It's not funny, it's not impressive, it's not moving. It just is.

I appreciate "outside the box" as much as anyone and have enjoyed many cerebral, difficult-to-grasp animations, scifi and fantasy films. But there's nothing to see here. Move along, move along.

I love animation. I especially like discovering a new animator. Unfortunately, this isn't one that I will look up in the future. The animation was gorgeous, but the story just stops. If there was a part two, maybe that would make this abrupt ending acceptable, but since this one was released 4 years ago, I'm going to guess that part two is never coming out. Would it really have killed the animators/writers to write a complete story? Add in a minute or two to explain what that was? When I was younger, I would have rewatched this, tried to glean a deeper meaning, assumed I lacked an understanding of art and raved over the brilliance. Now I know better. The conclusion was a chintzy shortcut for a production team that didn't know how to write a satisfying, comprehensible ending. I wondered how this short could have gotten such a high rating, but then I noticed only 374 people have rated it. That's probably friends and family of the production. If you're a fan of animation, it is pretty to look at and has a nice style and it's only twelve minutes of your time.

This is the beginning of something new- literally, there's a second part. Not sure if it's on Netflix so I can't say I'm too motivated to seek out the second part, or sure if it's even out yet. But what I am sure of is that the animation of this project is a gift to the eyes, the dialogue is fantastic, and the characters are so very curious. I did have questions at the end, I wasn't terribly inspired but was certainly entertained. Fantastic short!