Miss Todd

I happened to catch this little gem at the 2014 Sarasota Film Festival today and was blown away. The story--based on the historical fact that in 1909, the eponymous Miss Todd became the first female aeronautical engineer and pilot--was simply but thrillingly, inspiringly told, though the real treat was the means by which this tale was filmed. The characters were watercolor-on-paper cut-outs, given life by means of stop motion animation. These cut-outs were photographed amid both 3-D scale models and other watercolors. It was beautifully, artfully done--managing to capture both the feel of the period in which these events took place and the nuanced emotions of the heroine. This would be a terrific bonbon by which the developing minds of children might be inspired. But I should think most adults would warm to this creative concoction as well. This adult certainly did.