Ice Merchants

Being able to tell such a story through beautifully simple details is amazing. Ice Merchants is a piece of art like the world needs more of.

The visual art and animation are both provoking and original.

The sound is wonderfully crafted.

The story brought me to tears.

A world where a good short animation like this, created with very little funding, wins an Academy Award is a better one. I really hope it wins.

Also interesting is the fact that ice merchants actually existed, a long time ago, even though that is more of a poetic backdrop to the story being told.

I'm looking forward to author's next creations.

The first Portuguese production ever nominated for an Academy Award depicts a man and his son who sell ice to make a living. João Gonzalez's "Ice Merchants" is a low-key, unassuming animated short that comes out well done. It just goes to show that animation doesn't need to be fancy, and certainly doesn't need the characters voiced by the celebrities of the moment (to be certain, this one has no dialogue). I found the short on The New Yorker's YouTube channel. I hope that more people get to see it, and that in the coming years more of the animated shorts become available for viewing. Some truly impressive filmmaking here.

Absolutely gorgeous 14 minute short about a father and son that parachute off a steep mountain daily sometimes stylish and always peaceful! Hugely focused on feeling a sense of warmth even shortly. Ice Merchants is so good the bonding, the look of everything, and impressive! Magnificent and scary when heat finally arrives when the father and son least expect it; I can't imagine living the way they did. The music is quite tranquil and I love how the hat mountain towards the end looks like candy corn. Quite an interesting animated short that defiantly deserves some recognition regardless of win or not would highly recommend!

This short is my pick to win the academy award for animated short. The animation and color story in this emotional, and heartfelt. Such a layered story about grief, loss, love, passion, memories, heartache, adoration, hope, moving on, and finding the silver linings in life is absolutely flooring. The entire piece is a gorgeous, impressive, stylish piece of short form animation unlike any other I have ever seen. I watched it on The New Yorker's youtube channel, and honestly the style and vibe of this animation really fits with the outlet to be their home-it's such a perfect collaboration and the correct vibe. I would love love love to see more work from this talented portuguese animator, mr. Joäo Gonzales, and cannot wait to do so in the near future!

This short about a father and son living in a tiny cabin anchored on the side of an immense and icy mountain-side cliff is totally absorbing. There is no spoken word but the music is great. Father and son eke out their existence by taking ice to the village far below by jumping off their porch and parachuting down, then they come back up using a rope system. Since I am somewhat acrophobic, parts were a little difficult for me to watch (the son sitting on a swing thousands of feet above the ground - oh my!) but the basic colored line drawings were so engaging and gorgeous that one could not finish the film.

At first the ending is somewhat open to interpretation. Watching it a second and third time I picked up the hints scattered along the way as to what was happening that I had not fully grasped on my first viewing. I so appreciate being able to watch it on The New Yorker Screening Room.