Duet

'DUET': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A 4 minute animated short film (featured in theaters as a 'Highly Commended' animated short; played with the '2015 Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films'). It was directed by Glen Keane and tells the story of a couple, named Mia and Tosh, who perform a beautiful 'life dance' together; the 'duet' of the title. There's no real story or character development in it, but it is always beautiful and somewhat interesting to look at. Nothing too special but I'm sure fans of animation, dancing or Glen Keane, will still enjoy it. It's probably my least favorite of the 2015 'highly commended' or 'Oscar nominated' animated shorts though.

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Glen Keane's Duet works for the most part thanks to its kinetic energy and everything in it to move and operate with a graceful fluidity, almost effectively making this short dreamlike. Produced as part of Google's Spotlight Stories, the short consists of two young characters, a boy and a girl, who enjoy dancing and allowing themselves to be lost in the motions of their body, with their world consisting of white outlines representing characters, objects, and locations all encompassed in a midnight blue palette. The whimsical factor in Duet is quite high, and at four minutes, there's little to note other than it's a serviceable short that at least manages to halfway mesmerize thanks to its ability to always have something constantly moving and a static, single-color background.

Directed by: Glen Keane.

"Duet" is by Glen Keane. While this is Keane's first job directing, he has worked on many great Disney films, such as "The Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", "Tangled" as well as one of my favorite Disneyworld attractions, Philharmagic. According to my daughter, Keane is 'a legend'! His film is lovely but very unconventional. It has no dialog and is very, very artistically done. However, it's a style of film that I doubt would appeal to everyone. It tells the story of the lives of a little girl and a little boy as they grow but instead of the usual manner of telling the tale, it is like visual poetry--a truly lovely and memorable job.

The story and concept are not new, but it's really well made. I wouldn't say this is among the best in terms of animation, but it's very pleasant.

The definition of love here is different from other films. It's not obsessive.

Deserves better than 7.2.