An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It

Here's a nominee for the Best Animated Shorts Oscar. In the past, the category has been plagued with pieces that could have been done easily as live action. None of this year's fall under that curse, nor the one about "animated radio", a lecture with some pictures. This one has the look of stop-motion done in a computer.

Have you ever looked at a coming attraction trailer that tells you exactly what you will see in the movie, and thereby killed any desire to see the movie, because you know exactly what will happen? Here's a case where you can read the title and know exactly what will happen, because as soon as the character believes it, the cartoon stops.

So take "The Matrix", "The Office", Wallace and Gromit, a couple of B-grade Twilight Zone episodes, and add a very healthy dose of the classic Loony Tunes "Duck Amuck", mix them in a blender, and you will get something close to "An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake..."

I will say from the outset that there were several laugh out loud moments here, as the existential crisis of an office worker who (no spoilers, it's in the title) has reason to believe he's not actually real develops. It's an enjoyable little piece of pulling back the curtain to see how the Wizard of Oz operates, with what I'd normally say is a fun and intriguing premise.

That's where this left me a bit flat (no aspersions on our more two-dimensionally oriented animators) however. The ground here, so well sowed by PK Dick, has been amply harvested in recent years by "Vanilla Sky", "Inception", and a host of others littered across streaming outlets. There's no big reveal here, as you know from the first moment what the character eventually learns. Then there's no release to the tension, as in the end everything is as the viewer sees it to be from frame 1 (I know this because the frames are all counted off in the corner of the screen - a shoutout to Godard's "Le Mepris", perhaps? At least among many other films-within-films premises.)

So we're left with a feeling of unease, sadness, and no real insights into the dilemma our little office drone has. It's a cute little film but needed just a touch more story to complete it.

"Neil" is under pressure from his boss to increase his toaster sales tally. If he doesn't buck up, he's out - and he only has til tomorrow! Bluntly, he's bored of this telephone-bound existence and in a moment of absent-mindedness starts to notice a few oddities around the room. Next thing he's face to face with a talking ostrich - and that's telling him that all around him is fake. Upon closer inspection he realises that his colleagues are little more real than airfix models! Is he real? Is any of it? What's with this great big human hand that looms over him? It's a quickly paced and quite intriguing stop-motion animation, this, and as "Neil" starts to become aware better of his plastic surroundings, the story invites us to consider our own routine environments and choices, too.

It was an interesting concept and animated short film. It was shot with the stop montion technique and used very well. But there is one thing I don't like. Story. Actually, the story is interesting. But it is not a subject to be told in an 11-minute short and animated film. This movie tried to being "The Matrix" or "The Truman Show". It just didn't make sense. When the movie is over, I ask myself. So ? What happened ? Is that all ? What was the message ? Why ostrich ? I just made a point here. It's a short animated film shot as a stop mongion just to get it "cool". It wasn't bad, i think the story is unfinished. It was nominated for an Oscar award. I don't think it deserves to win. Now I have my favourite, and that movie is the most deserving one.

Showing the audience how stop motions are made is always a sweet reward after watching the movie, but the creator of this short animation went way further than that.

I was more than satisfied to see the relationship of two dimensions of the time, one of the motion graphics and another of the production of the motion graphic, all at once. It's awesome to see the supposed-to-be-emotionless puppet character developed his self-awareness and made his own choices. It is not a strange subject for many sci-fi movies, but probably the first time be seen of a stop motion character.

It's also a lovely story many of the audience can definitely connect to. It is amazing to see so many layers in a less than 10 mins animation.