Adamant animal advocates (especially for a certain eponymous poultry), vegans, and vegetarians need not apply. Everyone else, prepare to be stunned by what a simple story and simple animation can create!
This is my second feature film from these directors (after the most excellent The Girl Without Hands), and I am officially Team Laudenbach & Malta! Their unique animation style sounds like it would be limited or subpar, but it looks so seamless, smooth, and therefore spectacular! Especially love their use of colors; each character has their own color, families share the same general color, extended family like to be close in color. Their masterful use of angles and lines, lighting and shading is simply ingenuous. Take, for example, when the lights go out. In a blink, the colors appear to be inverted, the black now filling the space where color used to fill the frame. This is what it is like in real life, of course, but to see if in this carefully hand drawn animation bright to life is simply amazing. Something one needs to see to understand, because my description and any textbook definition of their animation sounds like it would be pretty limited or second best to animation from technologically advanced tools and bigger studios with richer budgets. But that would be selling their talents short.
A real pleasure to watch. The story is at turns heartfelt and poignant, but somehow manages to be humorous throughout the short runtime. Ostensibly a story about a mother and daughter doing their best to heal and love each other after the loss of their husband and father respectively, it becomes so much more with the additional characters, creative side stories, engaging plot twists, and playful musical numbers- even accompanied by one quite magical candy dream sequence! This is a perfect example of a film that tries to do so much at one time; under any other less capable guidance, would easily turn into a chaotic mess- but with three impressive animators and storytellers, it inexplicably works and comes together beautifully.
The only explanation I have for this masterpiece not having more acclaim is that, understandably, animal lovers, vegans, and vegetarians are not the target audience and would likely be appalled by the unabashed determination to kill the chicken, even if it is for a good cause for a young girl trying to remember her late father.
The big studios better watch out. Because Laudenbach & Malta have undeniably shown audiences that big money isn't necessary to make a superior work of art.
