Move Mountain

I'm not really a massive fan of animated short films . More often than not it's the animation that's the star itself and everything else is sacrificed for the sake of the animation . I think this is the reason why Nick Park's Wallace And Gromit films are so well regarded down to their mixing of clay animation and involving narrative storytelling

This short film by Kirsten Lapore has the same look as Park's clay animation and despite not having much knowledge of clay animation even I could tell you the work that must have taken to put something like this together must have been phenomenal . Stop frame animation involves pain staking time and trouble to make everything right and is a real labour of love for the animator so big respect to Kirsten who probably work ten times as hard as the average Hollywood effects wizard for a tiny fraction of the money

Where MOVE MOUNTAIN falls down slightly is a lack of explanation . I was somewhat puzzled as to who the characters are and what they were doing and why but I guess that often goes with the territory of animated shorts and this film is a very obvious labour of love for everyone involved

Move Mountain is the story of a woman climbing a mountain and having difficulty on the way. This difficulty may be related to her own self since in some ways the mountain appears to have a connection to her but regardless, she has to try to overcome obstacles for her greater good. Plot wise this film sounds obscure but the truth is that mostly it isn't and I enjoyed the telling. I would say that as a total conclusion and build towards an end it is not as satisfying as I would have liked, but the ideas in the plot and the nice telling of the story make it engaging none the less. It has a nice delicacy to the tone and as such it was enjoyable.

The truth is though that even if this was not the case, the film would still be worth seeing because technically it is very impressive indeed. The film is done in stop-motion and, while I am probably the most clueless person you can meet when it comes to the creative arts, even a dullard like me can see the sheer amount of time and effort into making this work. This stop-motion using clay and many other materials and techniques is not Morph from Tony Hart but rather many figures in the middle of a large landscape, all of which is moving and animated. The high points come during a party sequence and also in a rain storm, but the whole thing is just great to watch – so fluid, so filled with detail and so well done. I have never seen any of Kristen Lepore's work before but I see on this site she has several other shorts and on the basis of this impressive short film, I will check them out.

So the lot may not fully deliver on the build and the message may be a simple one of solving your problems and not letting yourself get in the way, but it has a really nice tone to the film and technically it is really, really impressive.